Natural Beekeeping International Forum

[frasertree]

Hi everyone. I am new to bee keeping and really love it. I'm driving everyone mad with talking about bees at home.
I am an arborist by trade and have come across some bees in a hollow tree trunk. I have been told that the bees have been there for three years by the owner but they are in the wrong place near the owners front door. Had the owner running around the garden with an angry bee in her hair. So she has had enough of them and of people getting stung.
So from what I have read, a 'trap out' takes a long time and you don't get the queen or all the bees.
The other idea is to drill a small hole near to where I think the edge of the hive is and spray some 'bee quick' in the hole and Hoover like mad at the entrance with a bee vac as the bees come out. Sounds good, does it work? Is it the best way? The tree has to stay. Feel I may be running out of time to get them moved and settled too. Any help please. Thanks

[Che Guebuddha]

I suggest you place a few swarm traps in the area and keep doing so year in year out to get a nice wild stock of bees. In Denmark we hardly have any old hollow trees and would be a shame to cut such down just to take out the bees.

This colony is a gem for wild bee population. Preserve it as it is, is my advice and focus on catching their swarms via swarm traps. By trying to vacuum them out you can easily kill the queen. Too risky.

Follow Prof. Seeley's work on making and placing swarm traps for best results.

Good luck

[Dexter's shed]

can you cut the tree ?

I had similar in my woodland, removed the top trunk down to the hollow, then fixed a square of wood over the hollow which had a 2" hole cut in it, simply fastened a brood box with frames on top, bees move upwards building new comb, queen lays eggs, just wait until queen is in top box before removing

[Broadwell]

Do you think she might be persuaded to let them stay if their flight path was raised? A willow fence / screen is a nice looking thing – maybe you could suggest? A fence could wrap around the trunk or a screen could just lift them on their way over her path.

Don't know about the Bee Quick idea, this might not be the forum to find people who have experience of it. My worry would be that it wouldn't get all the bees including the queen to leave the brood, and having sprayed it in there you can't get it back out – meaning you might have made the nest unliveable, and haven't got all the bees.

Another option would be a cut-out, you could cut a door out through the side of the tree, put the combs in frames and beevac the bees. There's plenty of videos on youtube I think. I've done it once and would prefer not to have to again. It can get messy, though if done well there will be minimal carnage and unlike the Bee Quick bomb you won't be condemning all the comb and brood. You can then fix the door back on her tree and fill around the gaps.

Best thing is for them to stay of course. Good luck with it.

[frasertree]

Thank you all for your help. If they were my bees they would stay in the tree but the owner has become a bit of a nervous reck. I really hope it's not going to be carnage. No room to put a panel up infront of the tree.