Hello all,
 
This saturday morning is supposed to be beautiful, weather-wise, and I have
an appointment to remove a bee colony from a bee tree.  I thought I'd share
my plan and solicit any pointers or recommendations anyone may have.
 
First of all, the hive is in front of a beautiful old house in a wonderful
neighborhood.  The home owner was going to exterminate the bees because the
tree is dead and falling down.  Many neighbors, including a list member,
requested that he make an effort to "save the bees".  (Maybe that would
make a great t-short or bumper sticker,  to co-opt the "save the Whales"
line and use it to spread knowledge of the plight of our friends and the
varroa mite.)   Anyway, that neighbor on the list put a message on BeeLine,
I answered and now we're going to do it!  The tree needs to be cut down and
we plan to do that first, then cut the limbs off and start locating the
bees in the trunk by slicing the trunk above and below the hole they use
for an entrance with the chainsaw.
 
Once we have found the extent of the hive in the tree, we plan to slice the
trunk on each side of the entrance with the chainsaw and split the hive.
Since comb is almost always built perpendicular to the entrance this, I
believe, would keep most of the comb whole yet give us access to the hive.
After this I believe the bees will start fanning where the queen is and
should give us a clue as to where to start searching for her.  Next I will
capture her and some bees in a cup and put them in a hive I have ready for
this purpose.  Then I want to put the hive with about five frames of comb
and foundation between the two halves of the hive to attract as many
workers as possible into the hive.
 
Now comes the fun (difficult) part, we're going to remove the old comb from
the halves of the trunk and cut them so that they fit in empty frames.  I
will always keep the upward side up so that cells maintain their upward
tilt.  After wedging the pieces of comb in the frames I plan to tie them in
with cotton string which the bees can remove later.  In accomplishing this
I want to process brood first and honey second.  I will get as much of the
"wild" comb as possible into frames in the hive and then move the hive to
my backyard for two weeks.  The homeowner who wanted to kill the bees
earlier now wants to keep them in his backyard!  After two weeks I will
return the hive to his backyard and work the hive from there.
 
Any bits of comb with honey will be used for public relations for the
neighbors who will no doubt be watching from a safe distance.  I plan to
monitor these bees as closely as possible to see how they fare with varroa.
 I have been told that they have been in this tree for at least 3 years.
In the process of cutting the comb I want to see if there are any varroa
mites in the drone brood if there is any drone brood.  If these bees are
somehow successfully coexisting with varroa, I plan to share progeny of
this queen with that program that is looking for varroa tolerant stock.  I
forget who was running that but it is in the logs and I can find that
later.  I know there is varroa in the area because my bees have had varroa
only 7 miles away.
 
Keep in mind this is just a plan and the bees pay change them as they are
prone to do to us beekeepers.  Are there any things I can plan to do
better?  Is my plan sound?  I developed this plan from the Aebls book on
beekeeping for those who want a reference.
 
Ted Wout
Red Oak, TX