Piczo

Bee Tree
Current mood: blessed

I got my 14th hive of bees Friday, thanks to a friend, Steve Langfeld, letting me in on a bee tree another person had in his yard.  The tree was actually a large hollow limb that was attached to an oak tree that had been cut down. I first found out about them in late February, but could not get to them until yesterday.

I took off early from work and went with my friend, who wanted to learn how to remove bees from a tree.  This is the second time I have opened a bee tree using a hammer and wedges.  Let me tell you, it works great! I have seen this done using chain saws and that is really messy and gets the bees going.  The bees seem to not mind the wedge and hammer so much.  I smoked them good before I started then just inserted wedges and drove open two splits which sliced  the dry oak limb down the middle in half.  The section they were in was about 6' long and opened up nicely.  I did not even put my bee veil or gloves on until I had started cutting the comb out, because they were so gentle.

I cut all the comb out to fit the height of a brood frame and sat each piece neatly asside. I did not find the queen in any of the comb when I was done cutting the last piece out, but there were lots of bees.  I then selected the best pieces to build the brood nest back by rubber banding the pieces into brood frames with the natural slant of the cells facing up. Due to the size of the limb, this meant each frame had three pieces of comb banded in.  I assembled the frames into a brood box and brushed all the excess bees on the limb sections right into the box.  The bees almost immediately began fanning the lemon smell of the Nasonov gland to welcome all to the new home.  I LOVE that smell!  I watched in amazement as the bees left on the outside started an orderly march into the entrance of the hive. The whole thing took an hour and a half from unloading my tools to having them loaded back!

I left the hive box to allow all the bees to get home and establish a new hive. I plan on getting them in the next few days.  Anyone with a lead on a bee colony that is out there just give me a call.  I am always glad to get them. 828-242-4556 or beeblessed@charter.net

Cal