No pictures yet. Was in a chinaberry tree.
The people have grandkids in the yard a lot and a couple are toddlers that mess with everything. They wanted the bees gone and since the tree was dying, the tree to come down. They were planning on using a trachoe to pull the tree, put on a burnpile and lite it with diesel. So the bees are better off with me trying to save them. Hole is about 15 inches off the ground. Tree not that big, not many bees it seems, shouldn't be too tough.
Error #1 Got started late.
Error #2 Under estimated the size of the cavity. :s
Error #3 Need better smoker fuel - was using pine straw and hay, just burns up too fast. :no:
Started removing limbs with chainsaw above my head to make handling easier. Bingo, got bees at 7 feet off the ground. Limb has a hollow about 4 inches in diameter and bees have short honey filled comb all up there. A hole about 2 inches in diameter off the end of a broken limb is closed with propolis. Man what a mess. About 4 to 5 feet of a hollow limb filled with bees and comb. Then the second limb about 10 to 12 inches in diameter had bees up about 2 feet into it. Trying to remove 3 to 4 inch wide pieces of honey comb to put on frames. What a slow mess. There was enough bend in the branch that cutting a piece to fit tight into a medium frame was impossible. So have a mess of honey comb, honey, and saw dust blend, any one interested. :scratch: Figure will use that to feed them in a week or two to see if they rob the honey.
Error #4 - forgot to remember the boy scout motto
Had a minor error with bee vac. Thought the power was still to a near by barn, didn't have enough extension cord to reach. Ran that down and finally got going good. But ran out of day light. Dumped the bees from the vac system into a nuc with honey comb attached. Looks like there was enough to fill 2 or 3 big coffee cans. Cut off stump flat and level. Place plywood over it and will go back to finish tomorrow. Hope the queen didn't get wacked or does not flee.
Never found any brood comb yet, but there is still the second branch with comb in it, looked like honey and then the trunk. Hoping the brood is in it. Seems like that would be where brood would be in a normal hive. There was enough bees clustered just prior to putting the plywood to fill another 2 or so coffee cans. As soon as the plywood was put on it, they went inside. Maybe JUST MAYBE, :banana: the queen will be there still tomorrow.
Plan is to try to vacuum up all the bees tomorrow and pull what comb I can to place in frame by reaching into the trunk. Main hole is about 8 to 10 inches diameter. Then cut another section just above where I stopped removing comb, and work that way down.
Trap out would have been easier but no time, and moving a soft tree like chinaberry, just didn't seem feasible.
So how badly am I screwed. LOL.
Anyone wanna place odds on whether the queen is still there?
Learned that honey sure makes a mess of a chain saw :lpf:
The people have grandkids in the yard a lot and a couple are toddlers that mess with everything. They wanted the bees gone and since the tree was dying, the tree to come down. They were planning on using a trachoe to pull the tree, put on a burnpile and lite it with diesel. So the bees are better off with me trying to save them. Hole is about 15 inches off the ground. Tree not that big, not many bees it seems, shouldn't be too tough.
Error #1 Got started late.
Error #2 Under estimated the size of the cavity. :s
Error #3 Need better smoker fuel - was using pine straw and hay, just burns up too fast. :no:
Started removing limbs with chainsaw above my head to make handling easier. Bingo, got bees at 7 feet off the ground. Limb has a hollow about 4 inches in diameter and bees have short honey filled comb all up there. A hole about 2 inches in diameter off the end of a broken limb is closed with propolis. Man what a mess. About 4 to 5 feet of a hollow limb filled with bees and comb. Then the second limb about 10 to 12 inches in diameter had bees up about 2 feet into it. Trying to remove 3 to 4 inch wide pieces of honey comb to put on frames. What a slow mess. There was enough bend in the branch that cutting a piece to fit tight into a medium frame was impossible. So have a mess of honey comb, honey, and saw dust blend, any one interested. :scratch: Figure will use that to feed them in a week or two to see if they rob the honey.
Error #4 - forgot to remember the boy scout motto
Had a minor error with bee vac. Thought the power was still to a near by barn, didn't have enough extension cord to reach. Ran that down and finally got going good. But ran out of day light. Dumped the bees from the vac system into a nuc with honey comb attached. Looks like there was enough to fill 2 or 3 big coffee cans. Cut off stump flat and level. Place plywood over it and will go back to finish tomorrow. Hope the queen didn't get wacked or does not flee.
Never found any brood comb yet, but there is still the second branch with comb in it, looked like honey and then the trunk. Hoping the brood is in it. Seems like that would be where brood would be in a normal hive. There was enough bees clustered just prior to putting the plywood to fill another 2 or so coffee cans. As soon as the plywood was put on it, they went inside. Maybe JUST MAYBE, :banana: the queen will be there still tomorrow.
Plan is to try to vacuum up all the bees tomorrow and pull what comb I can to place in frame by reaching into the trunk. Main hole is about 8 to 10 inches diameter. Then cut another section just above where I stopped removing comb, and work that way down.
Trap out would have been easier but no time, and moving a soft tree like chinaberry, just didn't seem feasible.
So how badly am I screwed. LOL.
Anyone wanna place odds on whether the queen is still there?
Learned that honey sure makes a mess of a chain saw :lpf: