Hi Everyone,
Last winter my uncle dropped off a log in my back yard with a colony of bees inside. It was a big old oak tree that had fallen over in the bush near his house .
Pictures here: http//s208.photobucket.com/albums/bb74/Ricelake_2007/
The bees were in the tree when it was standing and they survived the crash … lived in the tree when it was horizontal for a year. As you can see in the picture they have had to redraw the comb. The old comb in the bottom of the log is collapsed close together. It was most likely not vertical after the tree fell over.
I think / hope these bees are already regressed / if not partly.
My goal is to get these bees out of the log and into a hive and keep them naturally.
Here is what I have done.
I closed off there entrance and the ends of the log. I also filled the open space at he ends with fiberglass insulation so they will not fill it with comb.
Drilled two 1 ½†holes from the top of the log into there home . Then I placed on top a modified bottom board and a deep super with top bar frames.
The entrance is at the top of the super. I did all this while the bees where in cluster when it was still cold out.
This spring they are pretty busy bringing in pollen through the new entrance…. I am sure they are doing well in there .
I am hoping that they will expand up into the new box and the queen will move up. And at that point I can separate the box from the log , then I can open up the log and see what they have built in there ie: cell size.
I would appreciate any suggestions , comments.
I’m not sure if this is going to work and am wondering if I may have to do this a different way?
I Have 4 other colonies in a different location, I am going to try and start to regress them back to natural cell size this summer.
Thanks,
Glen