Time to share another lesson we learned this year.  I sure hope someone is
learning from these mistakes we are making and are brave enough to share.
 
How NOT to retrieve a colony of feral bees from an almost dead tree.
 
Got a call from a lady that had bees in her front yard.  They are living in
an old black walnut tree that is almost dead.  Been there for about 4
years.  But she wants them out of there, NOW.
 
The tree was located about 15 feet in front of their nice, relatively new,
home.  2 feet from the edge of the single lane blacktop road.  15 feet from
the other edge of the road that had a neighbors' fence about 2 feet from
it.  Another black walnut was 6 feet to one side.  Three ornamental trees
were about 6 feet to the other side.  The tree was about 25 feet tall, with
branches on all four sides reaching about 10 feet out.  The electric wires
were running through the tree about 15 - 20 feet up.  More than 3/4ths of
the tree was dead.
 
This lovely young woman was about 20 years our junior.  She was married to
an up and coming young attorney.  We were the unpaid help.
 
At first the most important thing was to take the tree down.  Dave said he
didn't think it would be a good idea for us and maybe she should just kill
the bees and have a professional take the tree down.  Well, the
professional she called said it would cost at a minimum $1,000.  So could
we at least save the bees.  Dave said we would try.
 
I called our state university.  The professor there is attempting to breed
from feral bee colonies that have survived the mite problem.  The professor
gave me explicit instructions on how to get the bees.  Dave and I went back
to the bee tree.
 
The main opening for the bees was in a V, about 6 feet off the ground.
There were numerous, about 10, other openings that were small but appeared
to be used.  We covered all openings, except the large one, with metal
window screening.  Small pieces stapled over the holes.
 
We found the correct mesh size wire to form a cone.  Made the cone diameter
at the base large enough to cover the opening.  Brought the opening in the
cone down to about 1/4 to 1/2".  Stapled the cone to the tree.
 
Mounted an empty bee box, with drawn foundation and one frame of capped
honey, in front of the cone opening.  (The professor did not want any brood
placed in the box, he did not want to chance crossing with any of our bees
before he could send someone to pick up the bees.)
 
Went away for two days.  The bees were not supposed to be able to find the
opening at the end of the cone.  Most of the worker bees would be out of
the hive within three days.  The drones would probably be out in about 6
days.  If the queen sensed the loss of her workers, she may slow down so
she can fly and come out.  It would be OK if we didn't get the queen, as
long as we could get some drones.
 
When we got back the bees had formed a real nice beard on the cone.  We
thought.  Watched closer.   The worker bees were going in and out of the
box, getting the honey, and passing it through the cone to the inside bees.
 The few bees that could fit through the cone opening were taking in
pollen.  Called the professor.  He said not to worry, but we might want to
cover the cone with something.  But the bees WOULD come out and move into
the hive.
 
Six weeks later, the lady called and wanted us to come and get this junk
out of her front yard.  If she had wanted to exterminate the bees she would
have called the exterminator.
 
Might have worked if we had covered the cone at the start.  And used a bee
escape on the end of the cone so the bees couldn't go back in.
 
Hope they liked our honey.
 
Judy in Kentucky, USA