feral bees

[treebeeman]

tropical storm Gaston was nice enough to put
a dead pine tree in my backyard. it is full of live, active honeybees. i plan on putting
them into a topbar hive. i have never kept
bees before but i have been wanting to for a while. i know this is the wrong time of year
to start but the bees are there and in the open and might not survive the winter so i am going to try. any tips would be appreciated. thanks

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alsjr.

[Michael Bush]

Tips on the TBH? Tips on getting them out of a tree? If you search on "feral bees" and "extracting bees" you'll find a lot of discussions on it. But the easiest thing to put them in would be a Langstroth hive, because the typical method of removal is to tie the brood combs into the frames. You could probably build a few frames to fit your top bar hive to do this, but it's probably easier to buy a Langstroth hive to put them in.
http://www.kohala.net/bees/capture/index.html

Here are pictures of a typical cut out.

[MIKI]

Why not just cut the section of tree with the bees in it, stand it in your yard secure it to something and wait untill spring. This will cause the least amount of stress. When they have already survived a real life "Wizard of OZ" ordeal why tear thier home apart now?

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Procrastination is the assination of inspiration.

Gary