Bee Folk, I asked for you alls advice, carefully proceeded and did the deed. The hive is in a locust stump with multiple entrances thru rotten sections near the ground. We approached the hive with brood chamber, chain saw, honey super, and full coverage. To me this was a real adventure. My goal was to save the queen and have the workers rob the stump. The stump was about 5' tall and oval shaped (4 1/2' by 2 1/2'). I carefully cut with saw in layers of 3-4" per cut down to the honey level. We slowly cut out sections of comb on each layer until we found a larva. This was after about 5 slices through the tree. This is a really sweet hive, because they are working like gangbusters and ignore the saw chewing up their house. They would crawl right over my hands while I was sawing to get into the door and treat me like a peice of tree. I cut a nice, flat platform on the stump top and did not need a board because the tree was so big. I put on a brood chamber with no bottom and a honey super on top of that. The larva we exposed was old and thus near hatching, so she will be laying eggs there very soon and I hope she will move right on up to the box above her. Then I can treat for mites and put an excluder below her. Having created a lot of sawdust, we heaped it over the old entrances and left the brood chamber entrance as the only access. Soon the entrance was covered with bees. This is a really big hive and is mostly below the ground. The morning went smoothly till the sun shone on us. The hive is sitting out in the middle of a pasture about 1/2 mile from the nearest building. I am really excited about getting this queen in a box and working with her. Thank you all for your input that enabled me to do this thing in a reasonable manner. ################## From the desk of, Bruce Kemp [log in to unmask] 1-540-626-4677