Teebeeaitch
House Bee
How frustrating! A road side tree that I know of has been home to a feral colony for at least the past 5 years. I have kept an eye on it and have also taken a swarm from it in the past. Recent high winds felled the tree but the break point of the trunk was fortunately above the colony so they remained undisturbed. That’s the end of the good news.
Local contractors, who were totally innocent, were instructed to remove the remaining trunk. They were only aware of the colony existence once their chain saw had sliced clean through the middle of the colony. Back to some more encouraging news. Despite large chunks of old brood comb spread all around, I think the main cluster, along with the bulk of their stores, survived and remain below the cut line in the last bit of stump. Of course they now have nothing above them and are pretty vulnerable to the elements. The plan now is to place all bits of broken comb with adhering bees back on top of the stump and hope they crawl back down. Then place a heavy wooden board on top and weigh it down with lots of tree off cuts. Finally cover with lots of foliage for camouflage to keep hidden from public view.
Not sure what their chances are, probably less than 50:50. However, I think that’s a better chance than being subjected to an attempted cut out from me. I thought I had got past the stage of worrying but I know I shall be thinking of them all over winter. Time will tell, roll on spring.
Local contractors, who were totally innocent, were instructed to remove the remaining trunk. They were only aware of the colony existence once their chain saw had sliced clean through the middle of the colony. Back to some more encouraging news. Despite large chunks of old brood comb spread all around, I think the main cluster, along with the bulk of their stores, survived and remain below the cut line in the last bit of stump. Of course they now have nothing above them and are pretty vulnerable to the elements. The plan now is to place all bits of broken comb with adhering bees back on top of the stump and hope they crawl back down. Then place a heavy wooden board on top and weigh it down with lots of tree off cuts. Finally cover with lots of foliage for camouflage to keep hidden from public view.
Not sure what their chances are, probably less than 50:50. However, I think that’s a better chance than being subjected to an attempted cut out from me. I thought I had got past the stage of worrying but I know I shall be thinking of them all over winter. Time will tell, roll on spring.
