# My honey of a bee tree story



## Al L (Mar 22, 2001)

Foundation is a thin sheet of wax fastened in a fram that rest on rails inside the hive. The wax sheets are held in plac by a thin strip of wood nailet to the top bar of the frame and pinches the wax sheet in place there the bottom slips in slots in the frame and there are 4 pins on each side to give it a bit of strength. The pins are about the size of a 16d nail but only a half inch long and slotted like a clothes pin.
The bees build comb on these starter sheets.








 Al


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## Al L (Mar 22, 2001)

This is drawn comb, its had honey in it, and a bee keeper has extracted all the honey. It is given back to the bees to use again. I got it from a bee keeper in Missouri who sent it when he heard I was trying to save a wild colony. Wild colonys have gotten so rare because of the mites killing them that word spreads fast of new finds, And I had two of them. And still have one left I know where they are.
Fresh brand new comb the bees make is as white as the foundation but over the years of use it turns almost black.








 Al


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## Al L (Mar 22, 2001)

I brushed all the remaining bees from the nuc box so I could close up the hive since it was still cold even thought it was near 2:00pm. I believe the temp was 44F but the wind had a bite to it. 
I have to leave for the time being but there is more so check back at a latter date.








 Al


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## YPSIFLY (Feb 13, 2001)

WoW! This is too cool!

Its my understanding that honey bees are not native to North America. Is this true?


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## Al L (Mar 22, 2001)

They are a import from Europe is what I am lead to believe.
 24 hours after installing the bees into the hive bodies I stopped in the bee yard to see just how they were doing. I was schocked to see the girls dragging the queen out of the hive. Bees are very clean soical insects, they will clean out things from the hive if they can move it if they can't move it they cover it up with porpolis.
We are not sure what killed the queen. The fellow I got the nuc from sent me a new queen overnite mail free of charge.
Note the lite colored abdoman with out the well defined stripes.








 Al


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## Al L (Mar 22, 2001)

The qeens are put int this cage with anywhere from 6 to a dozen workers to help keep her warm. The cage is placed into the hive where the hive workers eat out a candy plug in one end to release her. The plug is made with powdered sugar and water. Your supposed to wait 4 days to see if she has been released. That was the longest 4 days I've spent in some time. When I checked she was out of the cage so I pulled frames looking for her, should have been simple since she had a red dot on her head. We didn't find her that time out.
The cage.








 Al


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## Al L (Mar 22, 2001)

These girls are not yellow Jackets who are nothing short of terriost. I set off to the side of the hive a lot and watch them. They come in with loads of pollen of Orange, white, off white kind of a cream and they there's yellow. They will come in so loaded with nectar they almost do a crash landing. They land on me and walk around checking me out. Yes I have gotten stung by them (5 times to date they die after stinging you). I've done some thing stupid like reach inside the open topped hive to fast, pinched one, Or just got them all mad by moving the frames too much then thinking I was just goint to sit and watch them. Once they are mad at you give them a couple of hours they get over it.








 Al


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## Al L (Mar 22, 2001)

This is what my bee yard looks like. They get east sun to start the day, warms them up fast to go to work. They have dappled mid day sun so they don't get overly hot. They get full shade in the afternoon so they stay cooler than if they were in the sun. I installed their own water source a bee bath. The tall gate behind them will also have a wind block installed in the fall since that is north. Right now the trumpet vine is in bloom so they only have to fly a couple feet to harvest nectar, but like all kids they do what they want, so are in the sweet clover about 50 yards away. They Just love that stuff.








 Al


 But wait the story isn't over yet. Remember the Oak tree in the frst picture? There are still bees in it that have a story too.
I have to up load some pictures first so it may take a day or so.
 Al


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## ficious (Aug 28, 2002)

We are enjoying your story. It's interesting how it all came about. Fascinating, keep it coming.


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## Huntin Horseman (Nov 2, 2002)

I have friends that keep bees and they said Sweet Clover Honey is the best


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## Al L (Mar 22, 2001)

I had seen these lilies along our creek earlier in the week but the wife didn't have time to walk back there and look at them. Finally on July 18th she got the time in the morning, we looked at them took a couple of pictures then walked over to the bee tree at the start of this thread. You can just make it out in this picture on the left side. we looked at the bees flying inand out going in the direction of the sweet clover. the tree appeared as normal as a dead standing oak can look.








 Al


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## Al L (Mar 22, 2001)

I run my dogs along the creek every morning and evening except I didn't use that trail on the evening of the 18th for some reason.
On the morning of the 19th as I rounded the corner this is what greeted me.









 The tree had came down some time in a 20 hour time frame. The tree appered to have hit another big oak and broken into right at the start of the honey comb. and about a foot below the entrance the bees are useing. A bit of dirt & junk got packed into the bottom part of comb. It ended up laying on the main part of the log.
 Al


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## Al L (Mar 22, 2001)

A picture of the bee tree looking down the hill. The comb part is in the air and on top of the main tree.









 Al


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## Huntin Horseman (Nov 2, 2002)

I think Imagestation is down and thats why the pics aren't showing up


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## Al L (Mar 22, 2001)

The stump of the bee tree.









 Al


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## Al L (Mar 22, 2001)

Since the log was laying down and the bees had built comb while it was standing they would have either redid the comb in there or just plain stopped the queen from eatting and laying eggs and left for another site. I wanted to keep the bees around the area because of our flower beds (over 3000sq.ft. of them). I needed to stand the tree up so I made a stand to spike on to it, I also needed to close off the open end so they could defend their stores of honey from robbers. I had some scrape screen I wrapped the bottom with and tacked it in place. the stand wouldn't work cause the wood was too punky to hold the spikes. I took a wild guess as to where the comb stoped by listening to the log for bee sounds then I cut it off. I got lucky and was above the comb but there was a hollow there so I split a cover for that. I cut a block of wood for it to set on then used a comealong my wife cranking it and me holding it from just sliding around in a nother direction. once we got it on the block of wood she nailed the first two braces on I did the rest of them. We never got stung and neither of us wore any veils or gloves. I think those girls knew we were helping them. I was worried the queen may have gotten smashed when the log came down but the wife saw her in there and pointed her out to me.









 Al


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## Al L (Mar 22, 2001)

A peek inside the entrance.









 Al


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## Al L (Mar 22, 2001)

Queens are biggest bee in the colony and the drone is next. This drome was about to fly of on a mateing flight, there is a worker behind him to compare sizes. Once the drone mates he dies. If he doesn't mate he dies any way because the workers kill him out of the hive in the fall.
Books tell me that the queen mates with as many as 20 different drones on her once in a life mateing flight. she stores the sperm for her life which can be 10 to 12 years.









 Al


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## Al L (Mar 22, 2001)

I sat there for about an hour and counted 9 different drones come land on the edge and walk in with out seeing one go out.









 Still talking to a beekeeper about setting up a regular hive and opening the log up and getting the queen out and putting her in the hive. It would be at least two days before she got skinny enough to fly and the hive would have all the comforts of home so they might just stay there. I would take their brood comb the honey stores and tie them into frames as showen during my last wild bee tree try. This time though I would split the log open and get that queen.
 Funny thing, I went to talk to the fellow who owns the woods behind me about lining bees into his woods. While talking to him I noticed bees coming out of a tree in his yard, darn if it isn't honey bees. He said they have been there a awful long time and have swarmed at least 6 times that he remembers.
 This is my story. Hope you all enjoyed it, as much as i enjoy watrching the bees.

 Al


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## Huntin Horseman (Nov 2, 2002)

Thats awesome. Keep the updates coming


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## multibeard (Mar 3, 2002)

Two weeks ago my son and I were getting my boat to take the grand kids fishing. It was leaning against a stack of fire wood. As i reached for the stern to pick it up I heard the sound of bees. I looked at the softmaple tree behind the fire wood and a hollow spot was full of bees.
Talked to my bee keeper friend and he said that there wasn't much chance of gettin them out of the tree alive. Hate to have to kill them but the tree is next to a stack of lumber I plan on making into knotty pine but that woill have to wait till next winter now. 
I had planned to cut this tree and another to make room for an addition to a storage shed but that is put off until next year now.
Al, L arent you originally from Fremont


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## Al L (Mar 22, 2001)

I was raised and went to school in Evart, about 21 miles south east of Cadillac. My folks still live on the family farm, untill about 5 years ago my dad {89this Sept.} was still crop farming.
 Al


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