This past Friday I looked at this tree and was told the bees were discovered about one month ago. It was evident this tree had seen better days as it was infested with two different type of beetles and most of the top of the tree was gone, possibly due to lightning.
I told the lady that hired me that the void space the bees occupied would have to be accessed which would ruin whatever structural integrity was left. I plan would be to remove the bees and cut the tree down.
This monday I began by cutting the top of the tree off. The very top of the one and only trunk was about 15' tall with three main branches reaching upwards of around 25' or so.
I also cut a chunk of the tree out at about the 5' mark to see if there was any comb there. There was comb that extended upwards to about 13 1/2' and capped honey at the 5' mark. They definitely had been in the tree much longer than a month! :-D
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ImageShack.usThat was all I could do Monday as my back was tightening up on me. Called it a day around 6:30 pm.
Tuesday, it rained and just wasn't a good day to get back into it so I went back yesterday (Wednesday) and finished the job.
I discovered an awful lot of dead beetles inside the tree, some were propolized over. Best I can figure is the bees were either stinging them on their abdomen or stinging through their exoskeletons before they had the chance to harden.
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ImageShack.usMonday I vacuumed two boxes of bees which I combined with another hive. Yesterday I vacuumed 2 1/2 more boxes and shook them on site into a two medium set up after I had removed all comb and cut the rest of the tree down.
Overall this removal was a good bit of work but the bees were very gentle (which made it a very enjoyable removal), was stung one time and wore no protective gear throughout the entire process.
Hope you enjoy the pics!
...JP
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ImageShack.ushttp://img64.imageshack.us/slideshow/webplayer.php?id=img1825yz.jpghttp://img833.imageshack.us/slideshow/webplayer.php?id=img1833nd.jpgI have more pics to add but have to walk out the door.
Later!
...JP