I moved a bee tree Dec. 28th.

[Cox89XJ]

Back in the late summer a friend of mine called saying he had a bee tree in a fence row that I was welcome to. I tried a trap out, but there were to many entrances the bees could use for that to work. Well I gave up and planned on cutting and moving the bee tree to my property next spring.
Well I got a call last night from the friend and he said during the high winds in our area the previous day the tree had fallen across his fence. He used a backhoe to get the tree off the fence so he could make repairs. I went this morning and sectioned off the part of the tree that had the bees and using my winch on my Jeep, I winched the tree upon my trailer. I then took them to my land and placed them about 30 feet from my other hive. It was about 50 degrees today and I had to wear my bee suit cause of all the bees flying around. I placed plyboard on both open ends of the tree to keep skunks and other critters out. I’ve got the tree laying flat right now, but what I need to know. Do I get some help and stand the tree upright like it was? Or just leave it laying flat until Spring?

[honeyman46408]

Stand it up if you can

[Cleo C. Hogan Jr]

I agree with honeyman46408, stand it up if you can.

Odds are good that there is considerable mess of broken comb, and spilled honey, inside the tree, The combs are not hanging as they were, instead they are likely laying on top of each other. It will be easier for them to repair the mess made by the tree falling, and loading/transporting the log, if it was standing up as it was. cchoganjr

[honeyman46408]

I had this one behind my shop for 2 winters and made supers of honey off it

[BEEMAN0852]

Hi honeyman46408
I read your post of 12/28/11 and saw the lift on your trailer receiver. Can you advise where you got your lift to fit your trailer receiver? I have been looking for something like that to help lift bee logs and hives. I am older now and any help with lifting bees and hives will be a great help.
Did you make the bracket to fit your receiver on your bumper. I picked up a five foot log with a very large hive in it about two months ago and have it in my bee yard until next spring when I can extract them and put them in a regular ten frame hive.

[honeyman46408]

"Harbor Freight" have them on their sale flyer now

OH I did build the bracket out of some 2" square tubing from my juink box.

[New Ky Beekeeper]

honeyman46408 -

Great trailer lift!

Phil

[BEEMAN0852]

Thanks for the information. I will check out the current Harbor Freight sale flyer. Need something to help with the heavy lifting to help with the back.
Thanks

[kbfarms]

Thanks for that post, my husband is ordering one as I type. We were picking up heavy 8 frames (heavy for me) hives this summer from blueberries. We had a 7 medium stacked hive full of bees, honey and brood. Had to wheel it up a ramp into a 2500 4x4 pu bed. I got ate up by the bees! Had it strapped and screened. While wresting it up to the bed a corner of the screen got dislodged at bit and the boxes twisted at bit. At night with the low temp of the week at 92 degrees. They were good crawlers.......They are "my" bees, he's the woodworker and "labor". I'll not moves bees at night again.......this lift would have probably made the hive move significantly less painful and stressful. We'll take it to a local welder to make it a tailgate version. He does awesome woodwork (www.kbfarms.com) but doesn't weld. In addition to being on sale shipping is only $7 tonight! This would probably had made the moving of the 2500lbs out of sugar tomorrow easier also