Beeman to the rescue!

[user 20297]

Worry not, don't waste your time; they will die from varroa. Bees cannot survive in the wild....they would have died off anyway, chainsaw or not.

 

[JamezF]

Of course they're wild. Someone's just chainsawed their home into pieces.

James

 

[Garry R]

Worry not, don't waste your time; they will die from varroa. Bees cannot survive in the wild....they would have died off anyway, chainsaw or not.

Bees in the wild do not survive?! From the look of the colour of the comb there has been a colony in there for years. Well worth a try in my opinion. You could slip in an Apivar strip in between the combs if you wanted. The only thing which might be a good idea is to get the trunk upright in its original orientation as the "hive" is essentially horizontal as it is at the moment. I have done this once many years ago the trick is knowing how lowdown the colony goes when you make the cut to shorten it. In the end I used the trunk as the brood box and put a Nat sized square of timber on the top with a hole in it then a super on the top with crownboard and a roof. I kept it for about 3 years. No inspection obviously but eventually got them into a broodbox when I moved house. Go for it!!!

 

[Gilberdyke John]

I don't think they'll have lost much at all as a result of the cutting. There really is nothing in any other part of the tree that's in the pile of branches. If they've lost anything it can't be much more than a chainsaw's width off the top of the comb. Of course how much extra they use fixing what's been messed up is a different question...

On the way to and from swimming I've been contemplating shortening the branch, standing it and putting a floor with a hole in the bottom over the top and a box with some frames of stores on top of that. I guess it's possible that they might move up into the box as they consume their winter stores and I could take them away in Spring. Hopefully if there are bees flying then the sheep in the field will ignore it.

James

That's what I would do although I wouldn't butcher a floor. Just a crown board with a feeder hole positioned above the hole in the branch after erecting so it's vertical then a brood box with four or five frames of stores and some drawn frames. Make provision for an entrance perhaps by drilling a hole in either the corner of the crown board positioned to overhang the branch or a hole low down in the side of the brood box and plug it again next year after completion of the exercise. Another crownboard and roof on top, tie down to resist wind and weather, stuff the slot in the side of the branch, wrap with polythene to keep out the weather and cross your fingers until next year. If you have a spares mk1 abelo polyhive with the plugged vent holes in the sides and the 5 hole crown board there'd be no need for drilling and cutting. When the spring comes round and hoping there's still a queen inside there's a good chance the colony will expand upwards into the nice warm, dry brood box.
Digging a hole in the ground to erect the branch into could save some grief trying to cut off part of the length of the branch.

 

[Erichalfbee]

Bees in the wild do not survive?!

It was a tongue in cheek comment referring to another thread that most sensible folk are avoiding

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

Bees in the wild do not survive?! From the look of the colour of the comb there has been a colony in there for years

doesn't mean it's the same colony. It's pure naivety to assume it's the same colony year upon year - there is usually a constant cycle of deadout and recolonisation from swarms occuring.
Been carefully observing a few feral 'tree colonies' around here for years - invariably, come year three or four, the colony is dead in the spring but is quickly reoccupied once the swarming season begins.

 

[Garry R]

It doesn't mean it's the same colony. It's pure naivety to assume there is a constant cycle of deadout and recolonisation from swarms occuring. Been carefully observing a few feral 'tree colonies' around here for years - invariably, come year three or four, the colony is dead in the spring but is quickly reoccupied once the swarming season begins.

 

[Ian48]

If the tree trunk was just felled and not lowered down by lowering rope it will be quite a mess inside, some may remember I did two extractions like this back in the summer and posted the details.
If you could get it in a smaller section it’s easy to then split open lengthways being hollow.
I had great success with both of the ones I rescued, and they have gone on to build up into really nice colony’s.

After opening them, I cut some comb out and fixed them into some frames, I did about 5 frames and sat a brood box next to the trunk, placed some hessian around so they could easily walk up to the hive.
Now, the first one was queenless, as she had obviously been squashed between combs when the tree fell, but the bees that were left happily marched straight into their new home!
It took a couple of days for them to settle before I could move them,
I re queened them and they carried on as normal!
On the whole it was well worth the time and energy saving them.
I know a lot of people say leave them alone, but I think left on the floor like that, it wouldn’t be long before Mr Badger would find a tasty treat!

Good luck with your mission,

 

[JamezF]

Digging a hole in the ground to erect the branch into could save some grief trying to cut off part of the length of the branch.

Not in this case

The company doing the work appear to be using a grab to hold the tree whilst it's cut and then lower the sections to the ground (I assume because they're working alongside a road, so the consequences of getting something wrong could be messy). That does mean that they can cut large chunks off though -- probably three to four metres at a time.

James

 

[JamezF]

I know a lot of people say leave them alone, but I think left on the floor like that, it wouldn’t be long before Mr Badger would find a tasty treat!

That's a good point. I'd not thought of that.

James

 

[Ian123]

That's a good point. I'd not thought of that.

James

I’ve got a big badger set next to my house they’ve not damaged any hives, I’ve seen some scratch marks a couple of times. A friend did have a load of floor sitting poly mating nucs attacked though.
I had a very large Yew log with bees, I guessed the wood depth and ran blade of the chainsaw down enabling it to be split. This was done in November some years ago, I only saved comb with brood and tied up 2 frames putting them in a nuc. I fed and added filled frames from other colonies, I still have the original queens daughter in a hive.

 

[Ian48]

We get a couple of badgers in the garden most nights throughout the year causing havoc, Any one would think it’s a large family the damage they can do!
But the wildlife camera usually only show two.

We also have a few scratch marks on the hives, but keep them well strapped down just incase, I have seen their potential though,
They dug up quite a large wasp nest at the bottom of the garden back in July, they ate every single piece of it, just a few tiny parts of comb remained.
How on earth they do that is beyond me?

 

[Ian48]

Any update on the bees James,
Did you leave them until next year?

 

[JamezF]

Yes, I have decided that it's probably best to leave them for now and try to encourage them to move in the early Spring. I do drop by and check on them every so often, particularly as we've had a few torrential rainstorms recently.

I've not been able to stand the branch up, unfortunately. After giving it some consideration I decided that it is without doubt far too big for me to lift and I've not been able to get hold of the farmer yet to see if he has access to something like a telehandler that we could use to lift one end.

James

 

[enrico]

Yes, I have decided that it's probably best to leave them for now and try to encourage them to move in the early Spring. I do drop by and check on them every so often, particularly as we've had a few torrential rainstorms recently.

I've not been able to stand the branch up, unfortunately. After giving it some consideration I decided that it is without doubt far too big for me to lift and I've not been able to get hold of the farmer yet to see if he has access to something like a telehandler that we could use to lift one end.

James

The Tone is over the bank and into the flood plains now!

 

[Ian48]

Yes, it’s certainly been a wet few weeks!
all you can do is keep them dry and hope for the best in the spring?

 

[JamezF]

all you can do is keep them dry and hope for the best in the spring?

I think so.

James