Feral bees - what would you do?

[boywonder]

On Saturday afternoon, I received a call from a member of the public (dog walker), to let me know that a large tree in some local woods, and which had been home to feral bees for 'years and years', and which had been damaged in recent storms, had been cut up by the gamekeeper (not least as it had been blocking the footpath) ... right through the nest of bees.

Photos attached.

He seemed to have cut right through the brood nest. Good numbers of bees were apparent in both sections.

The nest itself was fascinating; probably no more than 20cm in diameter, but easily 2m in total height (~1m in each section), and with honey stores to the top and the bottom.

The location is about half a mile down a seriously muddy woodland footpath, in the arse-end of nowhere. The trunk was huge (hence the chainsaw I took down looking like a toy). Obviously, at near freezing temperatures, and at this time of year, any intervention might be doomed to failure.

Doing nothing, the bees would slowly succumb.

The landowner could not be contacted.

Before telling what I did (or did not) do, and subjecting myself to the related rotten tomatoes...

What would you do ??!!

 

[Sutty]

I have more colonies than I need already so would do nothing!
However if you feel they are worth saving it depends what the gamekeeper plans to do with the logs. If they are staying where they are you could cover the cut ends with a piece of ply (with a small entrance hole if no other access), see if either half has survived in the spring.
If you can get the logs cut down to size you could move them with the open ends together to re-form the nest, and make a small entrance hole, and again wait until spring.
If they are OK in spring do a trap out.
All needs permission of course, though 2 bits of ply could be attached first if you can't contact the owner.

 

[boywonder]

Interesting. I had also chucked some wooden battens/nails/hammer into the boot of the car, with a view to sealing the cavities (but making sure to leave an entrance, if one was not evident elsewhere).

That would just have been kicking the can down the road, though... plus one half would be Q-, so a lost cause really.

I would also have been (ideally) wanting to set the sections upright (untenable given their size, and certainly without some proper chainsaw action).

I also don't really need (or want) the bees, but the lady was very engaged and enthusiastic, and I'm always up for new locally adapted genetics - from 'survivor stock' if there is such a thing. The bees were yellower than I might have hoped/expected, though that's probably an indicator of sod-all.

Which is all to say, Sutty that I was thinking on not dissimilar lines in terms of an approach (ideally ultimately uniting both sections etc...), but, even with significant chainsaw work, the sections would have been nigh on impossible to manhandle.

... And I did (initially at least) walk back to the car resolved just to leave them be.

 

[ericbeaumont]

As it appears to be a public right of way the landowner may have an obligation to ensure that public and animals - horses, dogs - have freedom to use the path without danger.

I would make determined efforts to contact the gamekeeper and the landowner and agree on ,a mutual resolution. If the trunk lies on the public path then you may have a free hand, but establish first the boundary between public and private land.

Easier option is to close up the halves and wait for spring. Problem with that is the direction of the big log: reuniting the halves would put the length over the path. If you had three or four mates, you could lever the trunks into a united position, but off the track, and tarp the gap.

Alternative is to cut the trunks progessively from the other ends to establish the extent of the hollow internals, and then either shift the two short 1m nest sections together, or take them off site (depending on weight, vehicle, labour and permissions).

 

[The Poot]

Yes, first contact the landowner / gamekeeper. After cutting through the nest, I’d start by checking the hospitals ….

 

[Sutty]

If you have to roll big chunks of logs single handed you could try this: hammer 2 big anchors into the ground (or fasten to natural anchors), tie a rope to each, pass each rope under the log (may have to dig a way), pass them back over the log towards the anchors, then pull from there. This gives you 2:1 mechanical advantage.
I read this somewhere aeons ago but can't remember where!

 

[Murox]

Parbuckling. Scouts, cadets. Army etc.

 

[fian]

If you intend to collect the swarm:
A. I would arrange the trunks forming an L, moving them towards the edge of the road and with the corner facing the farm (to avoid bites on passers-by)
B. In the corner of the L, place a hive/nucleus with squares with honey and a bag of food on the between cover.
C. Wait for the smell of honey to activate the foragers to enter and the bees to prefer the hive to their current location, as long as the temperature allows it.

 

[boywonder]

All the above shenanigans is the kind of heavy duty lifting, shifting, shunting and cutting I'm not up for....... but... and bear with me here... on the drive home, my thoughts turned to vacuuming them out.

Obviously, that would require a portable bee vac, and a plan to work at speed, especially given the fact that this would be liable to blast chill the bees into torpor, if not death. I'd then need to ensure I could home them in a nuc with some frames of stores, given that any honeycomb in the tree was unlikely to be retrievable/usable.

A plan was coming together.

We have a Dyson V10, with a runtime of >50 mins at low power (ideal for bees )... So, (without the permission of SWMBO), I cooked up a plan.

At the cost of a 44mm hole saw, and a replacement crevice attachment for the Dyson (and maybe my marriage), I took myself off to the garage on Saturday p.m. to make a bee-vac, utilising a redundant travel box.



Long story short, it's been a huge success.

I got in and out in about 30 minutes, and reckon I have got almost all the bees... Other than the handful which expired as I worked them. I'm praying I got the Queen.

After a journey home in a warm car, and an hour in my hallway, there was sufficient buzzing to tell me that the bees were nicely re-animated.

In the meantime, I swapped out a nice frame of stores from an overprovisioned hive, and made up a nuc with drawn comb and also added some fondant, for good measure.

I have to say, I'm currently thrilled with the outcome. There are plenty of bees.

When it gets a bit warmer, later in the week, I'll lift the lid on the nuc, and post a video/pic here to show how they're looking.

I might not save my marriage, but it does look like I've saved £300 on the posho portable bee-vac I had my eye on.

 

[Sutty]

Good for you for giving it a go.