Tree with teeth...

[WayneB]

Take another look at the photo. There are honey combs there. Swarms don稚 build honeycombs. Swarms are looking for a new home. That picture IS home.

Thanks Dave for pointing that out, these darn old eyes.

Wayne

 

[txdon]

I spoke with the Texas A&M bee lab and they will test my bees, if I send them 50. I'm waiting for a call back from their collection expert on how to do it safely. A&M said that exposed hives are more common with Africanized bees and less common with European bees. The swelling of the sting is only significant if it extends past two joints, which mine did not. She also stated that hived bees are more aggressive than swarming bees.

The Lab person I spoke with said she test about 100 hives a year (mostly commercial) and if they are suspected African after the first wing measurement they take about 25 other measurements on the bees. This is an interesting hive for them because it is an external hive and there was a bee sting fatality in the area.

 

[mikim]

Do they have to be live? I'm thinking CO2 fire bottle ....I trust you could lay hands on a big one for that.

 

[jinman]

Don, I don't know how to go about taking samples unless you suit up. They should be a lot less agressive on a cool morning.

I'll bet that you will discover the hive started in a small hole in the fork of that tree and then outgrew its space. Because we have had such a mild winter here, the bees didn't freeze. They may swarm to a new location as soon as it gets a little warmer. What location on your property is home to the bees?

 

[txdon]

What location on your property is home to the bees?

Jim the hive is in a remote area in the woods off a foot path about 200 yards from the bridge and 1/4 mile from the house. I don't drive the tractor there so I don't want to move or destroy the hive. I will have a lot of wild flowers to pollinate soon. It would be good to know what kind of bees they are. I would prefer some sort of trap to set near the hive rather than take them off the hive, but there is a chance other bees, not necessarily the hive bees would enter the trap.

Mike, they don't have to be alive but they have to be in good condition. I think quick freezing them may damage the wings which is one of the measurements taken, but I'll find out from the expert when he calls, thanks.

 

[MossRoad]

... I don't want to move or destroy the hive. ...

I agree. Not until you are sure of what you have. Why destroy them if they are normal bees? However, if they are the aggressive type, bye, bye!

 

[jinman]

I agree. Not until you are sure of what you have. Why destroy them if they are normal bees? However, if they are the aggressive type, bye, bye!

We have a big hollow oak tree on the south side of our house about 12' off our deck. It has a hive of honeybees in it right now. They were there about three years ago and then left for one summer. The squirrels moved into the tree and then the bees came back and drove the squirrels away. They have shown no signs of aggressive behavior and we just can't bring ourselves to try and eradicate them with the bee populations under stress right now.

 

[sunspot]

Ex-beekeeper here.
That is a hive.

The wax is new. See how white it is. I've seen black wax on a very old hive.

I've seen a few hives like that. They are not worth the effort to hive them. BTDT.

Do you want to trap a few? Put out a wide bowl of watered down soda in the morning. Come back at night to collect them. The bowl will be filled with drowned bees.

 

[JerryG]

Don,
Like everyone else here I have never seen anything like that before. What I wanted to say was, it looks like it would be much safer to capture the bees you need at night in total darkness. Did the bee lab ever tell you how to capture them?

 

[Bird]

Way down in south Texas, several years ago, I saw some blue boxes tied in trees and was told they were traps to catch bees for testing to see if they were africanized or not, but I have no idea how they worked or what they were baited with.