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Bee Trees

Honeybee swarms will sometimes find a hollow tree and build honeycomb inside where they raise bfood and store honey for the winter

There are several ways to get a colony of honeybees out of a bee tree. One is to use hive and try to get the bees to go into it voluntarily.

Here I placed a brood body with drawn comb directly on the top of the bee tree opening which we created with a chainsaw when we cut the section out of the tree. The brood body was sealed to the tree to keep out weather and other bees. The colony will naturally move up into the brood body and the bee gum log can be discarded.

On this tree, I removed bees by splitting open the tree and actually cutting the comb out of the tree. I drove a wedge down from the top in two places and broke out a nice section of the tree to give myself access to the bees.

The comb in this hive had been added to substantially since the colony was brought home on January 1, 2007. Not sure what kind of honey they were bringing in, but it was tasty and very light in color. This colony would have been swarming soon.

<---Pollen

<---Egg

<--- Larvae

Capped brood

The colony had a lot of brood and in this photo you can actually see some eggs in the cells. The queen hid out in some cracks in the log until I broke those sections out with a crowbar and placed her into the hive with a queen excluder (includer) placed below her to keep her from leaving. These bees were again a mixture of dark and light bees showing genetic diversity.

I cut the comb to fit the brood frames and rubber banded them in. The bees will attach the comb and remove the bands later. I made sure to cut out good sections of brood, eggs and larvae to go in the hive. The comb was oriented to face up like in the tree. A serated knife is good for this kind of cutting. Regular dishwashing gloves are good for this as they provide some protection as you are handling bees in a way that could mash them. The gloves are easy to wash off and you will get sticky. The gloves are cheap compared to beekeepers gloves, though you may occasionally get a sting through them.

Honeybees cover the inside of the hive with propolis in such a way as to appear as if it has been varnished. Propolis is gathered from tree buds and sap and is a glue substance used to seal, attach and sanitize the hive. The propolis has antibiotic and antiviral properties

Mice or other intruders too large to remove will be covered with propolis after they are killed to sanitize the hive

Notice the jagged edges on the wings of the bee next to the beetle. This means the bee is aged

Once the comb that has been banded into the frames is attached, the bees cut the rubber bands and drag them out the front of the hive.

It is quite a group effort of coordination

It is very important to preserve all honeybee genetic material that is currently alive. Given the catastrophic losses of honeybee colonies in recent years, our honeybee gene pool has decreased dramatically. It is possible there is in existence feral honeybee colonies which show resistance to the viruses that are being vectored by the Varroa Mite infestation of honeybees in the United States. Feral honeybees make nests in various locations which they have sought out after swarming from a parent colony. They commonly build in hollow trees, or in cavities that are not properly sealed to the outside in barns or houses. If a colony has continuously existed in one of these locations for more than three continuous years, it is very possible that colony has some genetic advantage over most bees which require close human management to survive for long. As a result of these facts, I have actively sought out these feral colonies to build my own apiary. I also have selected from the best of these colonies to raise my own queens. I have found my apiary is showing resistance to the common problems most colonies are experiencing with the mites and with viruses.

It is believed that most Feral bees in the United States have died out. However, I have found some bees that are still in the unmanaged wild. The question is are these managed colony swarms that have escaped and found these feral colony comb remains to make their home there? I feel this is true in part, but I also know that vast numbers of feral colonies were out there. There is a strong possibility some did survive and their swarms are also repopulating the feral population. Their drones are also out there mating and I want to capture that aspect by open mating in areas near the large national forests where so many feral colonies existed before the mites came to the United States.

There are various ways to obtain feral honeybee colonies, but one thing is very important. Capture of the feral queen is very important to insure you are getting her genetics as well as any advantages her genetics may carry. Without her, you may be able to raise a queen with some of her genetic traits from her eggs, but getting her is the most desirable way to capture the colony. Remember, if you raise a queen from her eggs and the colony is moved to another area prior to the virgin queen from her eggs being mated, you will potentially miss out on the drone genetic material the original queen was mated from. This could vastly alter the genetic outcome of your new queen and negate the desired effects you are seeking from her. Without the queen, you also only get one shot at raising a queen from her eggs. If you save the queen, this gives you an opportunity to experiment with her eggs and gives you more than one shot at developing a desirable effect from her progeny.

Honeybee colonies in houses tend to be the ones you hear about most often, because the owners want your help in removal. They are also more aware of how long the colony has been in that location without management. Obtaining colonies from structures is easier if you have some knowledge and experience in construction, as well as some basic construction tools. Removal of siding is almost always necessary and before getting in over your head, you need to have a detailed agreement with the homeowner over what is expected and what will be accomplished. Working with a contractor may also be necessary. The price for your work as well as the contractor’s will also need to be agreed upon. Sometimes you get lucky and a feral colony is found in an abandoned house or one slated for demolition. Barns are often easier to obtain a colony from in that the detail of the finish is often easier to fix after the work is done. Make sure you know what you are getting into or talk with the contractor to make sure what to expect. Sometimes removal of the colony is easier from the inside, especially when brick veneer or stucco is involved.

If you are a hiker or are friends with hikers, you may come into contact with feral colonies in hollow trees. These can vary greatly in difficulty to remove the colony. Make sure you have permission to remove the tree before cutting into a bee tree. Typically, the colony is at least eight to ten feet off of the ground. This can pose a bit of a problem in getting the tree down without damaging the colony too much. If you want to remove the colony still in the tree section, make sure to seal up all the holes with screen wire while the bees are inside. Once the tree is down, the section with the bees in them can be cut out and screen wire quickly placed over the holes. The tree section can then be removed to your property by hauling it on a trailer or in a pickup. However you decide to handle your bee tree, you must get the bees out of the tree and into a hive. If your section of bee tree has a hole in the top, you can place a Langstroth hive on top of it and allow the bees to naturally move up into the hive. This could take some time, but does work due to bees natural tendency to move up. I usually suggest cutting open the tree and removing the bees, comb and all and putting them into a hive. The tree can be cut open with a chain saw or even a wedge. I have done both, and believe it or not, I liked the way the wedge worked the best. Some people smoke the bees up into a hive also.

Whether you are removing the bees from a tree or from a structure, the actual cutting out of the comb is much the same. I make sure I have lots of things available for either job. I like to have the following:
1 Buckets
2 Boxes
3 Screen Wire
4 Staples or Tacks
5 Duct Tape
6 Knives (including at least one long flexible preferably serrated one)
7 Gloves (dishwashing gloves work fine)
8 Camera
9 Rags
10 Several buckets of water
11 Queen Cage (at least one)
12 Queen Marker
13 Smoker
14 Hive Tool
15 Complete Hive Body (with empty frames)
16 A second hive body or a super (with empty frames
17 Plenty of rubber bands
18 Protective Gear
19 Queen Excluder
20 Hive top cover
21 Bottom board
You may add to this list after removing your first colony, but even if you do not use all of these items, having them available could save the day.

Whether you are removing the bees from a structure or from a hollow tree you must first expose the colony. I suggest smoking them prior to exposing them. After exposing the colony, you need to assess where the brood nest is and try to protect the brood and probable location of the queen. I cut out sections of comb that are approximately the size of the frames I am going to place the section in. I attach the comb into the frames with rubber bands. The bees will attach it then cut and remove the bands. Make sure to put the honey comb in the supers as much as possible and the brood nest in the brood body. I try to put the brood towards the center of the box and put honey on the outside of the brood box. Make sure the orientation of the cells in the brood box is the same as it was in the colony. (the cells should angle upwards) If you place the cells in wrong, the wax may not be useful, especially for honey storage. I try to collect all the brood and as much of the honey comb as possible. I take out all the excess honey comb and let the bees rob it back to the new hive. Don’t forget to put a queen excluder (queen includer) below the brood box so the queen will not try to leave and take the colony with her.

After getting the colony cut out, make sure all remains of the colony in the prior location is removed. If you have the queen, I suggest taking them home as soon as possible. If you do not get the queen, you can come back later and there will be a cluster where you removed the comb. If you find a cluster there that you can spray with sugar water and scrape into a container to add to the colony you have made. If you have removed bees from a structure, I suggest sealing up the structure as soon as you have all the bees removed so that they can not return. If you have removed the bees from a tree, I suggest cutting the remains of the tree up and removing to keep the bees from trying to go back. The parent hive can be left in the area for a few days so the stragglers can make their way into the new colony home. Remove the excluder from below the brood box when you are sure the queen is laying eggs and plans on staying.

You may want to quarantine the hive from your apiary to make sure there are no undesirably diseases being introduced. Foul Brood is one disease that comes to mind which you want to guard against.

This frame was banded in one week prior to this photo and has already been attached with some of the bands removed already.

Piczo