They're going to call me when they haul the log up. They're Amish and I thought they'd use the horses to bring it up, but I talked to them tonight and they'll use the Crawler. (dozer with forks on the front and a wench on the back) It's down in a gully 20-30 ft but they're operating a saw mill in the woods so they say it's no big deal to drag it up the bank and use the fork to haul it up to the house. He'll just start cutting small slices off one end of the log until we can see something. They're really very interested in doing it, but they're cutting pallet lumber which is about their only income right now so they can't stop to play with the bees. We can't tip it upright, it's in the way of other trees they're hauling. As the log lays now, there's a small entrance hole the size of a half dollar on the top. That's where he claimed he saw the bees. But there's a larger baseball size hole on the bottom of the log where the honey is dripping out. This larger hole is three feet away from the small hole. We thought maybe it would help to roll the log so the holes were on opposite sides instead of top and bottom. I don't know???? I'm almost sure an animal got to it. And the bees are probably gone. It just seems soooo cold for them to be flying around. I will say though beech trees tend to be hollow so they've got plenty of hollow logs to move into if they did take flight. Thanks for all your help. I'll let you know when we can cut into it. Now, I'll go do some studying on swarm traps....Yep, I'm really, really new to this ! Thanks again everyone...Julie~
