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Author Topic: bees in tree  (Read 3306 times)

Offline joe goble

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bees in tree
« on: July 31, 2008, 03:43:17 am »
the bees are in a tree that we would like to keep. i can see the combs hanging down. the opening of the tree is about 5 inchs wide at the widest and about 27 inchs long. i have a box that is about 1 foot off of the ground. it has plastic frames they are old frames with no was or comb on them at all. how do i go about getting them in the box will swam lure work or should i smoke them and pull out the combs. i am new to beekeeping and will take any ideas i can get thanks

Offline JP

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Re: bees in tree
« Reply #1 on: July 31, 2008, 06:25:59 am »
You need to physically remove brood sections with eggs to have a chance of them making a new queen. If you are extremely, extremely lucky to find the queen, catch her and cage her in your hive set up, most of the bees will enter your box, at some point, but it is doubtful you will get her to leave the tree or other bees for that matter with swarm lure.

You could try forcing them out with bee quick but without eggs or the queen you will not be saving this colony.

Trees are tricky if you can't cut into them to transfer combs.


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Offline joe goble

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Re: bees in tree
« Reply #2 on: July 31, 2008, 11:42:46 pm »
thanks for the info jp the tree is to big to cut down about 4 foot wide. how long do you think the three comb i can see are. do you think there is more than three combs. would it help if i would get a nuc or a package of bees and add these bees to it to make the hive stronger. would a nuc or a package of bees plus these bees last the winter i live in northwest ohio thanks

Offline JP

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Re: bees in tree
« Reply #3 on: August 01, 2008, 05:53:16 am »
thanks for the info jp the tree is to big to cut down about 4 foot wide. how long do you think the three comb i can see are. do you think there is more than three combs. would it help if i would get a nuc or a package of bees and add these bees to it to make the hive stronger. would a nuc or a package of bees plus these bees last the winter i live in northwest ohio thanks

Joe, I don't know all the particulars except what you have told me, if you would like some of the genetics from this colony, I would suggest you place your box about 50 yards or so from the tree, in early spring, you can do more than one if you like, and add some swarm lure such as lemongrass oil, do a search on here to gather more info about enticing swarms.

This way, if they swarm this upcoming spring you have the chance of catching some with a queen. If you can get a hold of some old comb and place it in the swarm box along with the swarm lure this will entice them to choose your box/boxes even more.

This is the option I would choose and BTW, this tree could be the source of many swarms to come on subsequent yrs as well.

Good luck Joe!


...JP

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Offline joe goble

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Re: bees in tree
« Reply #4 on: August 02, 2008, 03:22:24 am »
i taked to the owner of honey run and i am going to get a nuc. then i am going to cover the entrace and put a wire cone so when the bees leave they cant get back in. he said that they will ecept the nuc as their new home. then when their are just a few bees left i am going to try to remove combs and hope i get some of the brood. the nuc should be fairly strong with the brood and the bees. i hope i can also get the queen. should i try to get the queen with the brood. also would the bees raise the brood combs and what would i do if i can get the brood and the queen. thanks jp for the info i have alot to learn sorry for all of the questions i have learn a great deal of info from this site thanks again joe

Offline JP

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Re: bees in tree
« Reply #5 on: August 02, 2008, 09:28:48 am »
i taked to the owner of honey run and i am going to get a nuc. then i am going to cover the entrace and put a wire cone so when the bees leave they cant get back in. he said that they will ecept the nuc as their new home. then when their are just a few bees left i am going to try to remove combs and hope i get some of the brood. the nuc should be fairly strong with the brood and the bees. i hope i can also get the queen. should i try to get the queen with the brood. also would the bees raise the brood combs and what would i do if i can get the brood and the queen. thanks jp for the info i have alot to learn sorry for all of the questions i have learn a great deal of info from this site thanks again joe

Not to discourage you Joe but trap outs can be quite complicated. Simply placing a nuc under a cone will not get the queen to exit or most of the bees for that matter.

Trapping requires you to use a bait hive WITH brood from ANOTHER colony to entice the bees out to cover and tend to the brood in the bait hive, you may have to replace the first box at least a few times to get the majority of the bees to leave.

Many who try trap outs fail for a variety of reasons, ie, the hole in the cone is too small leading to a ton of bees that get congested when trying to leave and succumb leaving a big mess, the hole too large, not sealing all holes or the cone correctly and bees escape.

Also to consider trap outs take on average anywhere from 4-6 weeks on average, when you know what you're doing.

Still, and I am not trying to discourage you but I think YOUR best bet would be to place swarm boxes or traps out to catch swarms from this tree starting in the spring.


...JP
My Youtube page is titled JPthebeeman with hundreds of educational & entertaining videos.

My website JPthebeeman.com http://jpthebeeman.com

 

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