Bee trees

[Antipodes]

I thought it might be of interest to share photos of your local wild/feral colony bee tree.

This is a big old white gum. Entrance about halfway up the thick trunk where a branch snapped off years ago.

 

[user 6228]

whats the estimated age of the tree?

 

[Finman]

In Tasmania ?

 

[Newbeeneil]

A couple of bee trees I've had to remove colonies from. One trunk of a mature beech tree being hiabed down for me to extract. A large branch from a mature oak with a very strong colony that I had to remove from the fallen portion.

 

[Antipodes]

whats the estimated age of the tree?

A bit of a wild guess, but I'd say 150. First link is a bit about tree hollows in the obliqua ...with age

http://svc043.wic023v.server-web.com/pdf/pdf-members/afj/AFJ 2008 v71/2/09Koch.pdf
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eucalyptus_viminalis

 

[Antipodes]

In Tasmania ?

Yes. The photo was taken in Tasmania.

This is the only other one I know near me. White peppermint tree which is much younger. The entrance, which is very low on the trunk, is barely bigger than a bee, and is almost dead centre of second photo.

 

[Antipodes]

A couple of bee trees I've had to remove colonies from. One trunk of a mature beech tree being hiabed down for me to extract. A large branch from a mature oak with a very strong colony that I had to remove from the fallen portion.

Good job. Seriously big trees those.....
The Oak hollow in the branch is pretty cool.

 

[fiat500bee]

Yes. The photo was taken in Tasmania.

This is the only other one I know near me. White peppermint tree which is much younger. The entrance, which is very low on the trunk, is barely bigger than a bee, and is almost dead centre of second photo.

Oh no, your playing to the tune of @derekm . Music to his ears.

 

[Finman]

And Tasmania does not have varroa.

 

[Antipodes]

And Tasmania does not have varroa.

Hopefully not. We don't have Covid-19 either. A couple of benefits of our isolation from the rest of the world.

 

[user 6228]

Oh no, your playing to the tune of @derekm . Music to his ears.

It not my tune, its the Honey bees. I merely hum along.

 

[fiat500bee]

I try to harmonise with you @derekm because it's my favourite genre too

 

[Ed the Beek]

This bee tree is in a park near me, there is another colony about 4 trees down. the local council, to their credit, cut the branches back to make sure the bees do get too near the path. The colony has been there for 4 years that I know of, the colony is very large with masses of foragers and they will forage in weather conditions that mine will not.

 

[Mark Scarlet]

According to Dave Cushmans website these trees may be attractive, even if a colony does not survive a hash winter, for future swarms to settle because a) bees have been there before and b) the trees are positioned where several ley lines cross. I have a large tree (Ash) laid with the roots at 90deg to the ground and before i kept bees myself, some years would have a colony inside a cavity near the ground. There is also a large concentration of self set (oak) tree whips in that area / location. They are more likely to naturally germinate and establish on ley lines. Comment - .

 

[Erichalfbee]

here is also a large concentration of self set (oak) tree whips in that area / location. They are more likely to naturally germinate and establish on ley lines. Comment - .

We have large oaks around our fields and every year we have hundreds of self set oak saplings. They are dotted about all over the place and in the garden they pop up where the Jays have buried them

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

We have large oaks around our fields and every year we have hundreds of self set oak saplings. They are dotted about all over the place and in the garden they pop up where the Jays have buried them

We had loads of oak saplings in a spot nearby a few years ago - it was because there were loads of oak trees nearby.
It was also on a reclaimed coal tip.

 

[Mark Scarlet]

But I am only trying to promt comment on here as to the percieved importance of ley lines in the navigaional aspects of bee activity. Honey bee orientation seems to be more accurate and yet more fickle than that of homing pigeons. If i go to the spring line villages near me, I often think why someone in the distant past decided it was a good place for a house, a church or a livestock shelter or WHY. When it was a bare piece of land why get a 'feeling' this is the spot?

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

But I am only trying to promt comment on here as to the percieved importance of ley lines in the navigaional aspects of bee activity. Honey bee orientation seems to be more accurate and yet more fickle than that of homing pigeons. If i go to the spring line villages near me, I often think why someone in the distant past decided it was a good place for a house, a church or a livestock shelter or WHY. When it was a bare piece of land why get a 'feeling' this is the spot?

Don't take it to heart, many of us are a bit sceptical of Leylines and the likes, but as you say how many have looked at an old building/historic monument and thought 'in that case, why?' And sometimes the only way to start a sensible debate is to get someone to defend their theory.
And look at @pargyle and his dowsing rods........
In fact, only Monday I had someone from just over the road call for some honey and we got to chatting, he'd noticed that SWMBO had some tibetan prayer flags strung up on her garden office, and he had actually spent a few years out in Tibet completing research for his PhD - turns out he's an environmental anthropologist with a few published works, so 'why did they build that there' was his pet subject and ley lines and such like was a bit chunk of his dissertation.
Try this thead (started by me actually )

https://beekeepingforum.co.uk/threads/is-it-me-or.46514/post-706363
But as for acorns - seems to me, you only have to stick one in the dirst and up sprouts a sapling

 

[pargyle]

But as for acorns - seems to me, you only have to stick one in the dirst and up sprouts a sapling

Yes, that's true but .... the best and healthiest trees and the ones that survive to very great age are nearly always found on the confluence of energy lines ... if you take your dowsing rods to a field or a wood you will find that the biggest and best specimens are inevitably found where dowsed lines cross. The fact that these are also attractive to bees follows the same principle ... plus, of course, old trees often have cavities that bees will find attractive.

I don't hold with mumbo jumbo and the more outrageous theories attributed to leylines but I'm satisfied from my own observations that dowsing does identify some lines of force that do appear to have a bearing on aspects of the world we live in.. The question of 'why there' is sometimes a reason beyond our human comprehension whilst the likes of bees and other animals have an ability to seek out these forces and use them to their advantage.

I'm not out to start an argument ... the usual naysayers will be along asking me to prove what I believe by finding a needle in a haystack with a bit of welding wire ... and even if I did find it they would say it was a fluke or I knew where it was. It costs very little to make a set of dowsing rods and it's a fascinating (and occasionally challenging) business trying them out. I'm no expert but I've seen some pretty strong sceptics with their mouths wide open when the rods cross in their hands ... you don't need to be a believer - just have an open mind.

Read Roger Pattersons bit in the Dave Cushman site ... you couldn't find a more conventional and at times dogmatic beekeeper than Roger ... he would have taken some convincing !

 

[bobba]

According to Dave Cushmans website these trees may be attractive, even if a colony does not survive a hash winter, for future swarms to settle because a) bees have been there before and b) the trees are positioned where several ley lines cross. I have a large tree (Ash) laid with the roots at 90deg to the ground and before i kept bees myself, some years would have a colony inside a cavity near the ground. There is also a large concentration of self set (oak) tree whips in that area / location. They are more likely to naturally germinate and establish on ley lines. Comment - .

Well you invited comment......

I have much respect for Dave Cushman and have learnt much from his honey show videos and web site. I think he seems like a nice guy and is probably a better keeper than I could ever be.

But bees and ley lines! Really.....

If you watch the Dave Cushman ley line talk and look at the audience you will see several people up and leave as soon as he mentions ley lines. And notice its probably the scarcest audience of any speech. I must admit I felt a bit sorry for him.

As you may have gathered I do not subscribe to the ley-line bee theory. But I still enjoyed the talk.

I do have an interest in ley lines but do not blieve there is any connection between them and bees. I am interested in their history and how the theories about them started. I blieve them to be a man-made (made up by man) concept, not a natural pheromone.

"They are more likely to naturally germinate and establish on ley lines" - How exactly was that fact ascertained?