Hello All,
 
Well, we felled the bee tree in Lancaster, TX last Saturday and had a great
and educational time.  First of all we had a gallery that Tiger Woods would
be envious of.  Every neighbor that passed by was interested in our
adventure and I think we pulled off some great beekeeping public relations.
 We only had one bee sting and that was surprising to me considering how
close people were to the epicenter of activity.  Folks were coming right up
and looking into the tree to see the combs and everything!  Even passers-by
were slowing down and rubber-necking or stopping to take a look.  It was
wonderful.
 
First of all I have to thank Dave Green for giving us the advice to cut the
tree down and set it horizontal with the hole pointed up.  We put the hive
body on top just like he recommended and have yet to see if the queen moves
up.  Anyway, that saved us a bunch of time and much work that would have
probably left more people nursing stings.
 
In short, we basically fell the tree.  It was an old sycamore and hollow
from the base to about 2/3 of its height.  I'd say it stood somewhere
between 20' and 25' tall.  The bees seemed dazed and weren't all that
violent.  People were standing around them talking and watching.  Bees
landed on a few people but there were no stinging incidents at the tree
felling site.  The owner of the house did the felling wearing a bee suit
that we loaned him.  Once the tree was down he started cutting where we
thought the comb stopped at the bottom of the tree.  Another neighbor went
and got his chainsaw and started cutting where we thought the hives upper
extent was.  He wasn't wearing anything resembling protective gear and
didn't get stung.  It seemed his chainsaw kind of lulled the bees.
 
That neighbors wife, the member of this list who started this whole
adventure (I'm not using her name in case she wants to maitain some
anonymity, she can write a perspective on the event if she wants<grin>),
took pictures of the whole event.  The homeowner's pet chicken joined the
party and started eating the bugs and worms that had previously lived in
the tree.  Through all of this we managed to seal up the hollow section
that contained the bees.  We stuck it in the back of a pickup truck and
hauled it to my backyard about 7 miles away.  We unloaded it and set the
log where I wanted it.  I had previously made a bottom board from plywood
and some wood scraps to hold a hive body on the limb hole that the bees had
used as an entrance.  We mounted and sealed around that board, set a hive
body with foundation, some drawn comb and honey on it and put a lid on it.
The single stinging incident happened in my back yard.  We had a convoy
come down to my back yard and I guess we let folks get a little too close.
 
Now we're waiting for the queen to get tired of that sideways comb and move
up into the hive body.  There's some drawn comb just above the opening in
the log for her.  After that we'll put an excluder under her and encourage
the rest of the bees to move up with her.  Once that's done, we'll remove
the log from below the hive, set the hive on stacked concrete blocks to
keep it at the same approximate height, and split the log.  I'll let these
bees rob it out and render their comb.  I want to hinge the split log, put
some sort of roof on it and use it as a swarm catcher.  I plan to split
these bees eventually to get some more of this queen's progeny.  I don't
plan to treat for Varroa because I want to see if they have some natural
defense against it.  If they do I guess I'll need an experts help at
raising queens.  Keep your fingers crossed.
 
Thanks to everyone on the list who offered advice or comments.  The help is
really appreciated.  This was a wonderful experience that originated right
here on this list when someone who lives seven miles away from me broadcast
to the world via Bee Line that she wanted to save some bees in a tree
before the homeowner exterminated them.  After this experience, that
homeowner wants me to return these bees to his yard in a manageable hive
and teach him to keep bees!
 
Ted Wout, 3rd year, 10 hives, 1 house removal in progress, and 1 bee tree.
(I love this hobby!)
Red Oak, TX