Found a wild hive

[John F]

In a small hole in the middle of a large cottonwood tree in a small park in the middle of a large business park in the middle of Broomfield, Colorado, lives a colony of bees.

My quest to find this colony starts when I read a mention by a poster at beesource.com that he hadn't seen the bees in his area like he used to. I had just taken a walk around the pond that sits just outside my office window and thought, hmmm, I haven't either.

So on my next walk I decide to make an effort to scan the field of dandelions along the path through the park. And I find a bee. Cool! Ok, now what? I decide it would be fun to follow her back to her hive. Did you know that bees spend quite a bit of time flitting from flower to flower and not flying back to their hive? Anyway, she finally decides to leave (I guess) and starts this flying in a big circle thing. I follow... Still following... The background changes and instantly she is gone.

Next walk. I decide to up the odds a bit. I find an area that has a bunch of bees. I wait. I follow. Everytime the background changes I loose them. Following a flying bee is hard. Someday one of those beeliners is going to have to show me how they do it.

Yesterdays walk. I'm walking along trying to figure out some way to find where these bees are going when I think to myself that it might be easier to just look at the trees and see if I can find the hive. There a quite a few old cottonwoods around and many holes in them. There is also quite population of squirrels. Many more than I was aware.

I make a quick scan of the older trees and decide I should have a plan in which I walk up to each tree and look for bee activity. Perhaps that is easy to see. Now, I'm not kidding here. First post plan cottonwood tree is 10 yds or so from the sidewalk. At about 8 feet up this tree is an oblong hole in the trunk. In front of this is the comings and goings of the colony that lives there. This was way easier than beelining.

Ok, so, I probably got lucky. Is it wrong to hope this colony swarms now?

[Todd Zeiner]

John, It was I who spoke of these things you mention above.

I doubt they will let you take the tree down just to get the bees?

Maybe you could just let the park manager and maybe the local police about know your swarm pickup services when they do swarm. You'll gladly give a swarm a new home, right?

Also a good oportunity to get your foor in the door for other swarms.

[John F]

Hi Todd,

I'm sure laying claim to the tree is out of the question. Right now I sit nearby and watch, feeling like I have a great secret when the joggers and biker pass by.

As to having my foot in the swarm collecting door, I'm not having too much luck yet. The most common response I get on the phone to my question of honeybee swarms is "What is a honeybee swarm?" followed by, "I've never heard of that."

I've called the local Humane Society and local city government so far. It's been suggested that I contact local exterminators. I will seek the park personnel, good idea.

I do watch the bushes and such around this colony with crossed fingers. I suppose this is akin to watching a pot of water though.

[PA Pete]

Any way to put up a swarm trap or two nearby? You want them 8' up or higher I understand.

[RAlex]

John F ...I have contacted the cooperative extension, as well as the county dispatcher "fire control", and local police for refferals to collect swarms...Rick

[wayacoyote]

John,
I'm with you. I sat a frame with nectar on my front porch to try beelining. It got covered with bees, but once they took of, I couldn't tell which way they were going. Up was all I saw. I tried circling and watching. no difference. I tried walking away to see if they crossed my path. No results. I just can't see well enough.

Anyway, regarding swarm pickups, I purchased some business card paper from the local department store. Printed it up with simple info and "I collect swarms in the Mammoth Cave area." Glued these to notecards and mailed them as post cards to all the area exterminators, tree trimmers, timber harvesters, etc. The exterminators have been recommending me.

Like you, when I passed them out to the normal resources (police, fire department, 911 office) I got friendly smiles and "yeah, we never get calls about that, but if we do, we'll call you."

I payed less than $10 for over 30 business cards and have more blanks if I need them. I like this do it yourself technology.

Waya

[NW IN Beekeeper]

Waya-
"yeah, we never get calls about that, but if we do, we'll call you."

When I hear that I always hope it comes back to sting them in the rear, maybe couple of times, for then they might remember me the next spring![SMILE]

JEFF

[Budster]

I tried to see where my local bees were going too. I couldn't follow them since they fly so fast and erratic. I heard you could put flower on them to slow them down and also to make them easier to see.

[RAlex]

I seen a video where they were finding the bee when getting water. They said in the video that they always fly straight back to the hive. That said, what about coating the bee with confection sugar or flour ? Wouldnt that make them easier to see? I hear ya its hard for me to see where they little buggers are going 12 feeet away from me ...Rick

[Michael Bush]

If you glue a piece of down to a worker bee they fly slower and make a nicer view when tracking them. smile.gif