Honey Bee Rescue from a felled tree

Getting Started–These kids are awesome!

Today at the farm we cut down a huge pine tree that had been struck by lightening last fall. As soon as it hit the ground, we realized that it had been home to a hive of honey bees.

Word spread quickly throughout our community, and a family showed up to rescue them. I have to say, this was the coolest thing that I have ever witnessed!

From the time the tree hit the ground, we realized that the bees were very docile and not at all aggressive, but I had no idea that you could just walk among them and handle them without getting stung.

These kids are used to handing bees. They have several hives at home, and they told me that not all bees are this gentle. Occasionally you will run across a hive that will sting. So beware and be warned!

The father took a chainsaw and cut the section of log that held the hive into about a 4 foot length. The boys helped him cut a wedge out of the top, being careful to not cut into the honeycomb. They removed the wedge to have better access to the comb nestled in the center of the hollow log. All the while, the bees were swarming calmly around the work.

When the wedge was removed, the kids went to work salvaging the honeycomb and searching for the queen. According the the mother, the hive would not survive unless they could find the queen. We were all very hopeful, for it appeared that the comb was not damaged at all from the 10 foot fall, and we only saw 4 crushed bees.

Salvaging More Honeycomb and Searching for the Queen

Removing more Wood / Is the Queen Here?

Where is that Queen?

Moving Bees into the Hive. Still no Queen?

I apologize for the change in format, but I ran out of storage on WordPress and all videos will now be stored on YouTube.

Here’s the Queen Bee!

UPDATE:

The colony has been moved to a large horizontal hive. The queen is out of the clip, and so far everything is looking good!

Short Video of Log Before Extraction

We would never have cut down this hollow tree had we realized that it was home to a colony of wild honeybees! We are so grateful to the family who spent an entire afternoon rescuing the hive! The kids were precious and knew exactly what they were doing. I have to say, as a former school teacher, I was totally impressed!