I was doing a trap out from a walnut tree and a neighbor, John, saw the "Bee Rescue" sign. John also had a walnut tree with bees and he had us come check it out. The bees had been there "as long as he can remember" and he's been there since a child! A branch finally fell off exposing the hive. Lucky for us.
Our bee rescue team was made up of Patrick and Bobby Jo (in the veils),Ginger (on the ladder) came to give the bees a home and John (behind the ladder) the homeowner. Ginger said that she had done enough cut outs but she couldn't help herself and was in the thick of it soon enough with her gear on.
Patrick was the first to tackle the cut out. Bobby Jo tied in the comb. There were many layers of dark thick comb with decent brood.
The inside of the tree was awkward so it was hard to see where the bees were. With the camera we could see that the hollowed out tree was pretty deep and pretty high inside. In the end we couldn't scoop bees out of the tree so we left the box with a trap out like set-up with the hive for them to move into.
Another super fun bee rescue. I would love to see what other people are doing too. Please send in your story too. beehumans [at] gmail.com
—roberta
