Bees in Trees

jomoco

Thanks Treevet.

This was the last old dead hollow bee tree I took down that I went ahead and wiped out the entire hive because I missed them when I bid it.



And yes, it was a crane removal, a very delicate one in which I stayed with each pick until over half the tree was gone before trusting the tree not to fall over with me in it!

jomoco

Sean Freeman

That was one big hollow! Don't blame you for being tentative about the integrity of the rest of the tree.

Here is the outcome of a felled tree (about 4yrs ago NthQLD) with bees....man were they ANGRY! for about 30 mins everything that came within range got hammered, birds, people cars etc... have never seen birds getting hammered like that before quite amazing...little swarms following them to the nearest tree or power pole then BAM hit them again...

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Angus

Welcome to Treeworld jomoco

We will often try and relocate the bees into more manageable accommodation, as we keep many hives and sell honey.
There are a number of conditions that MUST be met before moving a hive, otherwise they will die indefinitely.
Most often, hives inside hollow trees will die if you try and move them as the bees need a happy queen to survive.

Here are a few pictures of us capturing a swarm from a post at home. This particular swarm turned out to be a strong hive.





Bee's are definitely one of the most fascinating creatures I have ever dealt with. It would be a real joy to be able to successfully capture each hive, although this does not seem to work in reality.

Take care.

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Angus McMahon
Sherbrooke Tree Service

treevet

Has anyone had any encounters with AHB's, Africanized honey bees?

I have had many encounters with white faced hornets where I thought they were going to kill me until they let up. I can imagine the AHB are similar but worse and will kill you maybe depending on the purity of them.

jomoco

Not yet Treevet, however if you mess with typical honey bees anywhere near their hive, they put off a berzerker chemical/signal that puts the whole hive into a kill mode you don't want to be around.

Back in 82 I was the designated above bucket reach climber doing the tops of the big redgum eucs at the Balboa Naval Hospital in San Diego. I was working at about 90 feet up when a bucket boy working the tree next to me cut a big lateral that fell into my tree far below me. That branch ripped open a huge bee hive attached to one of my tree's lower laterals, and an unbelievably huge cloud of furious honey bees rose towards me high above at 90 feet using old three strand bodyline. I knew I was in big trouble as I desperately worked my monkeyfist to get down to the ground while being stung hundreds of times literally covered in furious bees. Of course the damn three strand rope formed a friggin spiral hive of it's own below my fist, and I franticly tried to undo it so I could reach the ground. I gave out of steam only about 5 feet from the ground, covered in bees with a huge knot of rope under my monkeyfist, literally being stung hundreds of times, and not having the presence of mind to think logically enough to cut my bodyline with my handsaw to save myself.

Luckily for me, two brave groundmen came to my rescue, lifting me up enough that I could unclip my ropesnap and finally get on the ground, both my saviors were stung dozens of times for their heroic efforts to save me.

But the party had only just got started. Thousands and thousands of furious bees were attacking any and everyone anywhere near that area of the hospital, people were running for their lives all around me. I managed to get my gear off with hundreds of bees crawling all over me, my workshirt was so full of bees I ripped it off and threw it away from me on the ground dancing and clawing bees out of my hair as a detachment of bees left the cloud around me and attacked my shirt on the ground covering it completely and stinging it, an inanimate object with my scent of fear permeating it.

I ran for my life down the hallways outside with a cloud of bees right behind me. Running into a restroom, I slammed the door behind me, then methodically killed every bee that made it inside with me, one of the groundmen that saved me was already inside, and began plucking bees out of my hair and killing them. We stayed in that restroom for about 15 minutes as my good buddy plucked rather than scraped stingers off my face neck and scalp. This ofcourse just added to the already considerable amount of bee toxins coursing through my bloodstream, making me feel kinda dizzy and very wired, like I had snorted two gramms of cocaine in one big rail.

Deciding things may have calmed down outside, we snuck out of the restroom heading away from the work area when I guess the bees caught my scent again because a cloud of bees came at me again, completely ignoring the groundman running away from me! This nightmare would not end, and I ran off that hill in high gear towards a parking lot only to be overtaken again with no shirt on by the still furious bees that apparently had my number encoded on their little insect brains. Covered again in bees, I ran for the pool area and dove into the deep end of the pool to escape my tormenters.

It was a very surreal experience for me to be underwater looking up at a carpet of bees floating on the water's surface above me over the deep end. I had been stung hundreds of times and the chlorine in the pool made each sting on my body tingle and burn as I made my way underwater to the shallow end to pop up out of the water and get a breath of air before sinking back under again to ponder my unusual situation, I did this 3-4 times before bursting out and running again, this time in the direction of my truck in the parking lot. I made it to my truck, got inside with about 6 bees, and killed each one before I could truly rest and collect myself in relative safety.

I drove off the hospital grounds intending to reach our treeyard, but never made it that far before having to pull over, open my door and puke my gut out onto the freeway. Feeling very poorly and finding it somewhat difficult to breathe, I wisely drove to the nearest emergency room and gave myself up to the doctors, who promptly shot me full off antihistamine, telling me it was a miracle that anyone could survive being stung that many times, muchless drive themselves to an emergency room afterwards.

I have good reason to both hate and respect the common honey bee. The honeycomb from this hive took three large trashbags to contain it, it was one of the biggest hives ever seen in San Diego, and it was my fate to be in their tree that day I guess. I know I'll never forget that day or the two brave groundies that saved my life, thank you again nick and angel.

jomoco

Jeff Darby

LOL...funny stuff for the reader not the bloke getting the shit stung out of him...lol.I remember when i was a kid setting up the local kids with our hives...we used to tell them to put a bucket on their head and the bees would not recognize them...funny thing was not one peron got stung until they lifted the bucket to see what was going on..lol...big mistakes..lol..all you could see was the victim doing the slap as a bloody great swarm of bees chased them off our property...lol..you used to see them a few days later looking like a neanderthal.
yeah i know it was slack but I was a kid..but at the time it was hilarious.

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Robert STAVROU

Jomoco, thank you for your story, the joys of arboriculture.
On bees & bats, like to try to avoid the Italian Brood bees generally; locally we have a number of native bee species (fortunately all stingless). Whenever they are encountered we leave the billet containing them to nightfall and then relocate the hive (making sure that on relocation that there is no large openings available for the honeybee for access and hence the robbing and eventual destructive of that hive). In Northern NSW we have a large production horticulture industry which has recently realised the inportance of microbats for insect control (they eat their bodyweight in insects on a daily basis). A new employment option for arborists has become the installation of microbat and owl boxes in large adjoining orchard trees.(All this has come about through the realization that their appropriate habitats no longer exist.)
Suggest that this environmental work should be available in most areas.
Take care all and remember to be safe!.....Stav

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STAV

jomoco

Sounds like you guys are really gettin with the program Stav, I wish the same were true here in the US. I hope it's not too late before the whole world finally gets it's act together and acts on what we already know about bees birds and bats being crucial to agricultural and horticultural sustainability.

Keep up the good work mate!

jomoco

Eric Frei

Jeez, I dont know how you took so many stings, one knocks me about let alone that many.

Stav, I see a lot of PVC tubes, about 2" dia and 1m long in trees around here, you reckon that's their bat box?

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Robert STAVROU

Morning Ekka, generally not. Microbat boxes tend to have a very narrow rectangular upward facing opening, the upper face of the box covered in some sort of fabric so they can climb up then into the box.
Thought the local groupmanufacturing these boxes are called Beneficial Widlife Services. They make other habitat boxes as well but am unaware as to there success rate. 0411 339 499 is the number of one of the principals Mark Duncan. Ekka more importantly they need arborists to install these habitats. Stay safe Stav

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STAV