Old Timer Ways With Bees
Honey and Bee Harvesting
The Way Your Great Grandparents Did It
First thing that was done when searching for bee hives and or honey was to find the hive. It isn't as hard as you might think. Bees will fly from the hive to the nectar and back to their hive again. So all you have to do is follow the bees. You can follow from natural bait or from your own. Just find where the bees are gathering food and watch for a while then follow them back to their hive, which is basically going to be a straight shot back. Hence the term B-line! Now you aren't going to follow one bee as they travel too fast for you to do that. Instead you follow the bee highway. Lose sight of one then watch there for others.
Once you have found the tree you can deal with it then or wait. It isn't likely to go anywhere. How you handle the hive depends on your personal preference. Some people wait until fall but this means you must feed the bees all winter. I prefer the spring so this isn't necessary. You get less honey though.
On the day of capture you bring with you your homemade hive to the bee tree and a container for the honey. You then cut the tree down so that the tree falls away from the bees entrance and exit hole.
Next step is to wait for the swarm of bees to settle down a bit. Light a fire for smoke to calm the bees down. Now you cut into the tree with an axe. Cut about two feet above and below the hole and then you cut down each side of the tree to connect the first two cuts. This allows you to remove the face of the tree to reveal the inside hives.
Now the fun part, remove the face and find the queen in the brood chambers. Gently pick her up and get her into the hive you made for your new colony. Now run. Gather as much honey as you can from the old hive but leave the new hive alone until dark or better yet the next morning.
At this point all the bees should be in the new hive. Plug all openings and carry the new hive back to its new location.
Tip: Before getting the queen into the new hive it is a good idea to place some of the brood comb into the new hive.
The only reasons you don't normally just use the old tree hive is because the fall often destroys the internals of the hive so that it is no longer usable by the bees or because it is too hard to transport. If this isn't an issue you can certainly fell the tree gently, maybe using ropes to lower it and cut the tree above and below the hive section for transport.
BACK TO BEE KEEPING
BEE KEEPING TIPS
SWARM CAPTURING
The Way Your Great Grandparents Did It
Once you have found the tree you can deal with it then or wait. It isn't likely to go anywhere. How you handle the hive depends on your personal preference. Some people wait until fall but this means you must feed the bees all winter. I prefer the spring so this isn't necessary. You get less honey though.
On the day of capture you bring with you your homemade hive to the bee tree and a container for the honey. You then cut the tree down so that the tree falls away from the bees entrance and exit hole.
Next step is to wait for the swarm of bees to settle down a bit. Light a fire for smoke to calm the bees down. Now you cut into the tree with an axe. Cut about two feet above and below the hole and then you cut down each side of the tree to connect the first two cuts. This allows you to remove the face of the tree to reveal the inside hives.
At this point all the bees should be in the new hive. Plug all openings and carry the new hive back to its new location.
Tip: Before getting the queen into the new hive it is a good idea to place some of the brood comb into the new hive.
The only reasons you don't normally just use the old tree hive is because the fall often destroys the internals of the hive so that it is no longer usable by the bees or because it is too hard to transport. If this isn't an issue you can certainly fell the tree gently, maybe using ropes to lower it and cut the tree above and below the hive section for transport.
BACK TO BEE KEEPING
BEE KEEPING TIPS
SWARM CAPTURING
