bee tree

[beegee]

A neighbor has a 125-year-old pecan tree with a bunch of bees hived-up in it. It's about 5 feet off the ground below the crotch of the tree. She wants the bees gone. When she called, she told me she had a swarm, so I went over with an empty hive body and my loppers, ready to collect an odd swarm. When I found out they were hived-up in the tree, I told her that it may be possible to extricate them, but it wouldn't be easy or quick. Anyway, do you reckon it's worth messing with or should I just kill them and patch the hole in the tree with concrete? The bees are Italian-type and seem pretty vigorous and gentle. I walked right up to the hole and looked in and the guard bees jumped at me but didn't offer to sting(at least this time...)

[Michael Bush]

Search on "wild bees" or "feral bees" you'll see this has been discussed a lot. Probably since you don't want to damage the tree the wire cone method would be best. Details are in ABC XYZ of beekeeping and the video "Free Bees For You" from Brushy Mt. or it is also detailed in many of the posts on here.

[BULLSEYE BILL]

I started one such project just three weeks ago. All is progressing nicely.

I put a slow to build hive of bees next to the entrance of the tree and it has doubled in the first two weeks.

The hive was one that I extricated from a bird house and had not progressed as quickly as I had hoped. When the tree owner called me I thought that this might be benifical for the established hive.

Another benefit is that the tree is across the road from a soybean field in full bloom. I am hopeing that the influx of bees and feeding with syrup will give my colony a good chance to overwinter.

I plan to let the new colony set for a total of six weeks, perhaps more, and then when the tree has weakened enough I will open it up for robbing out.

Bill