Wednesday, September 22, 2010

We have honey, but how to harvest it?

We have this huge maple tree that is being cut down due to the fact that it is in a terrible location, between two houses, and hollow in the core. It has been the home of a busy beehive for who knows how long. Today I went up to take closer pictures and noticed that there appears to be honey on the outside of the tree. The bees may have filled the tree full of honey, which I would like to harvest. Also, how can I get the bees to move from the tree to a beehive that we purchased? Ah, that is the question. Anyway here are the pictures that I took.




The bees were quite active this afternoon. They must be happy that the rain has ended.

3 comments:

Celeste said...

you need a pooh bear :)

rubberbucketsaysso said...

it's a little late now, but find the queen bee, move her to a purchased beehive and Voila! workers will move to follow. to prevent stings during the move, wear a bee suit, and use a smoker to calm the bees.
http://www.publishingcircles.com/bee_keeping_business.html

Am-I-Nuts said...

Thanks Becca. Here's the situation, I have the hive, I have a suit, I have a smoker, but the beehive is 25 feet up in the trunk of the tree. The trunk is too big and leaning the wrong way to cut it down without risk to mine or the neighbor's house. The hive is well established so it probably is most of the upper trunk of the tree...and where is the queen. I understand that bees do not like saws cutting into their homes. We will probably need a lift and crane to take the trunk down and then I'll see about the bees and honey.