Big Bee Tree as Research Aid

Remember the bee tree?  Well, the bees never moved out of the tree up into the provided boxes on the top.  Instead they have continued to live happily in the bee tree.

Katherine Darger is doing a research project at the University of Delaware on feral bees and their genetic make-up, with a particular interest in Africanized bees.  I'll learn more about it when she speaks to the Metro bee club on Wednesday night.  Meanwhile, she has arrived in Atlanta early to collect samples of feral bees in the Metro area to study for her research.

I volunteered the two trees I oversee for the company who removed the trees, preserving the bees.

Here's the original bee tree and the second rescued section from another tree:

Katherine used a butterfly net to collect her samples.  She swirled it all over the place and ended up with quite a few bees in the net.  (This was 7:45 at night but the bees were still flying thanks to daylight saving time.

She also collected by scooping the bees into an alcohol filled vial (these bees all died in the name of bee research).

She also coaxed them into the alcohol vial from the collection in her butterfly net.

In the end she went away with a good sampling from both trees.  I'm proud that the rescued bees can contribute to better knowledge about feral bees and their genetics.       

News of the Bee Tree

Back in August, I was lucky to be a part of a rescue of a bee tree by Atlanta's Odd Job Tree Removal company. Later a second bee tree was sectioned and put next to the first one. I put hive boxes on top of both tree sections. Then I fed the bees in both trees heavily during the fall and then crossed my fingers that they would make it through the winter.

I went to visit the trees at the end of February. In the first big tree section, the hive had obviously died. There were dead bees lying near the entrance as you can see in the picture below.



I stuck my camera in the hole and took a picture of the interior. Here's how it looked: Some shards of comb and dead bees lining the floor of the opening.



I'm short of 8 frame medium boxes so I decided on Thursday to go over to retrieve my equipment from the dead bee tree. Amazingly, it was teeming with bees. I watched as obvious bee residents flew in and out of the opening. I went in to speak to Annette in the tree company office. She said that on Wednesday suddenly there had been a lot of activity. Then today she noticed that the bees were living in the tree.

I guess a swarm moved into the tree on Wednesday and is happily occupying this space!



The second bee tree, which did make it through the winter, also is full of bees. Here they are hanging out of the hive opening. I didn't open the hive box on top of the second section, but tried to lift it. The bottom box is obviously filled with honey.

I'm considering what to do at this point. The bees in this tree have begun using the hive box which is a good sign. What I think I'll do is reverse the boxes and put the empty box over the hive opening at the top of the section. Then I'll put the honey-filled box over that. Perhaps the bees will then begin to use the comb in the now-empty box and we'll get them to move in to the wooden box as a choice of theirs.

I'll let you know what I discover when I go over and inspect the hive box on top of this tree section.

Hive Box for BT2

So here's the rest of the story of BT2.


Here is the second bee tree. There is less activity; it's a smaller hive; and as always with a tree felling, the queen may not have survived the "earthquake" that happened to the tree. But I'm going to proceed with hope that she is there and the hive may survive.


I've nailed the plywood over the hole. Then I set a box filled with drawn comb frames.



Finally I set a baggie of sugar syrup over the frames and slit the baggie. This treetop is quite slanted so the sugar syrup wanted to run out of the hive box. I am going to have to try to level the box with wood shims the next time I am over there.



I put a second hive box (empty) around the baggie and put an upside down bottom board on for a top. I have a better top and will bring it the next time I come to these hives.

The whole contraption looks a little crazy but I think it may work if we can entice the bees to move up.

Bee Tree Two aka BT2

George Imirie wrote that some people are bee-havers and some people are bee-keepers. I think there needs to be a third category. Eddie of Eddie's Odd Job Tree Service in Atlanta is a bee-saver. His company cut another tree on Friday that was full of bees and they again brought it back to their office.

You can see Bee Tree One in the background with a hive box on top of it. In front of it in the foreground of this picture is bee tree two (BT2 - thanks, biologie!) BT2 is much smaller than BT1. The bees are coming out of a knot hole in the lower center right of the tree.



Here's an up close and personal look into the hole.



I missed this tree sectioning. When they did it, apparently they cut off a good bit of the hive in a section of tree that they left near the tree they set up. It has empty comb in it. They did this cut this morning, so I am surprised that the comb is empty. The bees may have robbed it out, but in 30 minutes between cutting the section and my arrival? These bees may be like mine at home and are already using up winter stores.



I took these pictures and hurried home to set up the hive box. First I went by Lowe's and bought a 2X2 board, brought it home and cut a circle out of the center.



I put it in the car, along with a hive box with drawn comb, an empty box, a bowl of sugar syrup in a baggie, a bottom board to use for a top, and my basket of bee goodies.

Yet Another Bee Tree!

I'm at Bald Head Island in North Carolina with my sister, but as we were driving here, my cell rang. It was Annette at Eddie's Odd Job Tree Service where the first bee tree is. She called because they had cut another tree full of bees and had brought it back to the office.

The plan was to section the tree as they did the first one - so when I get back to Atlanta, there should be a second bee tree right next to the first one. I can't believe it!

Of course from here I have no pictures, but will get some when I get back. Annette said this is a smaller tree than the first one. The bees in this tree should be in desperate straits. Their winter supplies will have been destroyed or at least turned into a big mess with the felling of the tree.

When I get back to Atlanta, I'll get a piece of plywood as I did before and cut a center hole. I'll take a hive box over there with drawn comb. Then I'll cross my fingers that this will work!

I'll need to feed them like mad to get them ready for winter as quickly as possible. Lucky for us the first frost in Atlanta is usually around the middle of November....so we have a little bit of time here.

A View Into the Bee Tree

Even though I don't post about it every time I go, I feed the bees in the bee tree at least once a week. The last time I went was last Thursday, after a visit to see the flood damage at Blue Heron.

Today I took them a baggie feeder full of 2:1 sugar syrup. It was only 59 degrees this morning and the bees weren't clustered around the opening and weren't flying too much. So I took advantage of the opportunity to peek inside their tree home with my camera.

Here's how the entrance looked this morning. The bees are clearly more inside the tree than out.


A view of the inside reveals bees on top of bees.



I couldn't decide if they were clinging to each other or if there is a shard of rotting wood still in the center of the hollow part of the tree.



It looks as if they are clinging to each other as I get closer inside. I so wish I could see their interior combs and how long they are and how they have been repaired after the tree cutting. But for now, this is the view.



When I opened the hive box on top of the bee tree, I found a totally empty baggie and no bees at all. I guess they were all clustered to keep warm - it was about 49 or 50 degrees last night. When I put the baggie on the frames and slit it, one lone bee came up to greet me.

Feeding the Bees all over Town!

Because I am off to visit my daughter in Maryland this weekend, I wanted to feed all the hives that need feeding before I left. I opened the nuc with the poorly mated queen from Blue Heron and found that they had not touched the baggie I left there last weekend. I don't really understand why they have not, but I added a couple of slits to the bag and didn't replace it.



I am also feeding Aristaeus2 (the swarm hive from last year on my deck). I gave them a new bag as well. They had drained the bag from the weekend completely dry.



I went over to Blue Heron and opened up the Purvis queen hive. It's hard to put a baggie in without squashing bees. I've learned to lay it down slowly and gradually like a glacier moving over the frames to allow the bees time to move out from under the descending sugar syrup.



Now the baggie is fully down on the frames. I believe a couple of bees may have lost their lives in the process but it isn't as bad as it could be if I had cavalierly put the baggie on top of the frames.



Finally I went to feed the bees at the bee tree but that didn't go so well. The bee tree bees have gotten all possessive of the hive box. This should be a good thing but not for me and my health and well-being!

I climbed up the ladder with my jacket on and well zipped (remembering the last time last week when I got stung in the head under my unzipped veil). I did have my camera around my neck sticking the strap through the opening in the bottom of the veil.

I opened the top of the box and looked at the bees crawling all over the frames under the empty syrup baggie. I pulled off the syrup baggie and the bees came at my veiled head. One came in through the hole for my camera strap. I knew I didn't want to get stung before seeing my daughter for the first time in several months.

I climbed down off the ladder and moved away from the bee tree and zipped off my veil.
Big mistake. Apparently there were bees all over me. Taking off the veil gave them the opportunity they were waiting for and I suddenly had several bees in my hair, a bee in my nose, a bee under my glasses and a stinging bee above my eyebrow. I got the bees off of my face but the ones in my hair all found a way to sting me.

At the end I had about four stings in my head, one on a significant middle finger and one over my eyebrow. So now I headed off for Maryland with a face all swollen on the left side. Thankfully by the time the plane landed 24 hours after the sting, most of the swelling was gone.

Note to self: From here on out, take a smoker to the bee tree. Those girls OWN the hive box.

Circle Dancing and Festooning at the Bee Tree

In the hot summer in a hive box, the bees gather outside on the landing and do the washboard dance.


AI Root in the ABC and XYZ of Bee Culture says that while the dance looks like the bees are scrubbing and scraping the landing of the hive, there's no evidence that they are doing anything other than exercising.

The bees at the bee tree are washboarding all around the knothole opening. Inside the opening as you can see in the picture above and below, they also appear to be hanging onto each other in a sort of acrobatic festooning in the center of the hole.

In an August day in Atlanta (this was 8 AM) it must be awfully hot inside the tree cavity.



When I climbed the ladder and opened the hive box, there were more bees than usual in the box and on top of the frames. I think they are getting invested in hive box ownership! Or at least I am hoping that they are.

Sunday Afternoon Visit to the Bee Tree

I love visiting the bee tree, but I want so badly to see inside. This close up of the front door is the best I can do. It's funny to me that they are all in a circle around the opening - especially since one of the bee dances is the circle dance.



Last week I changed out the top box (really just a surround for the baggie feeder) for a prettier box. This looks so much better, don't you think?



I added a new bag of syrup. The old one still had about 1/4 cup of syrup in it so I left it hanging under the top so maybe they can finish it off.

Meanwhile they appear to be doing well. The other day I tried to pull up the center frame and it was hooked by wax or propolis to the comb in the tree - I think that's a good sign for their moving into the box.

Cross your fingers! I am......


This afternoon I also went over to Blue Heron and gave them a new baggie of syrup. They looked good and were happy and calm, despite my intrusion. Makes me feel better about killing that gorgeous queen, but see, I'm still thinking about it. Never again.

Ants and I visit the Bee Tree

The bees are calmly and regularly going in and out of their knot hole entrance to the bee tree. They seem settled in their new home. Julia put a sugar syrup bag on the hive box on Tuesday, so I thought they'd need a new one today.


The sugar syrup was almost completely gone. I removed the bag and after I did I pulled a few frames to see if there were any action in the hive box. I was thrilled to find that the bees were festooning off of the bottom of the frame just over the central hole in the tree trunk. This probably means that they are building wax and comb to allow them to move easily into the box.

I hope over the fall they will make the hive box more homey by working on some of the frames.


I put a new sugar syrup baggie on top of the frames and slit the baggie in two places. This is 2:1 syrup which is what you are supposed to feed this time of year.



The Odd Job people had reported that they had seen ants all over the tree and around the hive box. I put down a ring of cinnamon around the hive box. The ants can't get in below the plywood because I ran a ring of silicone caulk around the hole before I nailed the plywood down, but they can enter under the hive box. "Folks" say that cinnamon is an ant deterent, so I hope it works.