- Joined
- Nov 8, 2008
- Messages
- 1,439
- Reaction score
- 2
- Location
- Nr Melton Mowbray, Leicestershire.
- Hive Type
- National
- Number of Hives
- 8
The field next to mine had an Ash tree on the road hedge which regularly lost branches into the road, a tree surgeon condemned it a few weeks ago and said it would have to come down. Trouble was this tree had a colony of honey bees in residence, there was no way to get them out and myself and the field owner had hung up a bait hive in late spring in the hope of catching a swarm.........no such luck. On 26th August the tree surgeon sprayed the entrance with wasp killer foam. The next day after the foam spraying the bees were still flying. The following Wednesday he felled the tree. He left a huge chunk of trunk with the nest somewhere in it, the flying bees moved with the trunk. The owner said I could do what I liked with it. I contacted Hedgerow Pete as it was a huge tree and needed a whooping big chainsaw. Unfortunately the time of me contacing Pete coincided with his computer breaking down so he didn't reply for several days, as I felt time was of the essence, it had rained and now the entrance was uppermost to the weather, I contacted Beewolf who came and had a look and decided he had a man with the necessary whooping big chainsaw. We were going to do it yesterday, but ran out of time so went this afternoon.......as nice an afternoon as you could wish for. My son came down to video the whole thing. Of course we didn't know what state the inside was going to be as the combs could have easily collapsed with the blow of falling. A cut was made into the trunk and then another at an angle to bring out a wedge. The cut just touched into the combs. I won't give a blow by blow account because there will be a video to watch in a few days, suffice to say amazingly we found a marked queen and put her in a hive with as many shaken bees as we could, it all got rather sticky, we left a hive as close to the original entrance as possible and the bees were marching in, in classic fashion. No-one got stung, the bees were remarkably calm. I've brought home all the combs and honey.......well covered in wood chips from the saw, to render down and feed back. Thanks to Hedgerow who offered to come over when he eventually got my message. Many, many thanks to Beewolf for his invaluable (and as always calm) help, Beewolf's son James, Richard with the whooping big chainsaw and Sam my son for videoing. You tube to follow.
Frisbee
Frisbee
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