Found, A Bee Hive!

[shadowwalker]

I kept seeing alot of bees this year and on one end of the property especially. I decided to see whats up. I found a big ol tree. And just like in the movies. It had a hole where a limb used to come out the trunk. And hundreds of bees. I went back out at night and checked the hive closer. I found the tree to be in good shape. Fixed a large hole about two feet above the ground but no all the way into the tree yet. I cut a few broken limbs off, that were hanging down. I don't know if I will harvest honey. I probably will just keep watch and make sure they have a good spot to live as long as they want to stay.
Any info on helping these stay? I don't really care about the honey, but would like them to stay.

[mbrown]

What a great find!! I would like to have them on my land. One of the things that makes living in the country so nice is being able to watch and observe all the critters. If you were in the City they would have to be removed. Hope you enjoy your find!

Mike

[redbrick]

The only thing I'd suggest is to have an empty hive standing by incase the colony decides to swarm. Bee "gums" are notorious for being swarm generators, since they only have so much room to expand into. If you can do it, clean out the immediate area except for one low growing tree from which you can easily collect a swarm.

If you haven't tried, swarms can be rediculously easy to collect, assuming you can get at them. In a nutshell, you simply position the empty hive box under the swarm, preferably about two feet below it. Tie a rope to the branch and, standing back about five or six feet, give it a good sharp yank, enough to dislodge the bees in one clump. Don't be afraid to give it some oomph, you want them to go in one shot, so the queen goes with them.

Be careful, but don't worry too much about getting stung. Swarming bees are usually very docile. In fact, if you've ever seen "beebeard" competitions, you've seen swarming bees.