Hi Group, I am a second year bee-keeper with a challenge. I lost all of my bees this spring to the woes of beekeepers and am looking for other hives to start over. You all were most helpful on the last question and I thought I would try again. I shoe horses also and tell all of my customers to tell me if they see any wild hives or swarms. I got one of those great calls that someone found one and I went to see it. The very large hive is in a locust stump, 4-5 feet tall and 3 feet in diameter. I guess about half of the bottom of the stump is sound and half rotten. The bees are going into the root area and the hive appears to be partly below ground level, partly above. Since the mites, etc have killed about everything around here, this would be a resistant hive and it would be good to save the queen. I can leave the hive where it is as long as I want, but they want a reasonable time for it to be moved. Next spring is OK with them. Here is the plan I have devised; tell me if it sounds good. 1. Suit up completely and saw off slices of the stump until I expose the hive. This will give me a flat table on which to mound the rest. 2. Punch a hole through the honey at the top to give a clear path from the hive to air above. 3. Put a brood chamber on top with drawn out comb and put in Apistan and some of these grease patties to protect the hive from parisites. They are still in danger of being killed from the mites eve though they are alive now. 4. Next spring go out and tend the brood chamber weekly (?) till I see the queen up in the brood chamber. Then put a queen excluder below the brood chamber to keep her up there. Let the hive develop and move it when the brood is laid enough to give her a good hive. 5. I could probably then move her during the day and put a new brood chamber there with another queen in it for the existing workers to follow for another hive. 6. The last step would be to cut up the stump and see whether there is any brood down there, especially with queen cells and take everything out for the farmer to be happy. How does this plan sound? Are my ideas about the queen being a source of resistant bees accurate? Any suggestions? Thanks, ################## From the desk of, Bruce Kemp [log in to unmask] 1-540-626-4677