Abandoned Bee Hives

When honey bees swarm they frequently move into cavities previously used by other colonies of bees. They are attracted to old bee nests by hive odors of beeswax, honey, propolis, pollen, bees, and their pheromones. It is common for a colony of honey bees to occupy a hollow tree for a couple of years and then die after being weakened by parasitic Varroa mites. Even if the combs are destroyed by hive scavengers, like wax moths and small hive beetles, the cavity is likely to attract another colony of bees. The same sequence of events commonly occurs when people attempt to drive honey bees from the walls of their houses. Old colonies are soon replaced by new colonies. Colonies of bees replace one another so frequently that it may appear a hive is occupied continuously when it actually held a series of different colonies. The attractiveness of hive odors makes old bee hives effective bait hives for capturing swarms in the spring and summer. Old abandoned bee hives are attractive to swarming honey bees as well.

I received a call asking me to remove bees from some abandoned hives. I found a very large feral colony occupying a stack of rotting hive bodies. While wood rot and termites had consumed most of the woodenware, combs were held together by propolis. One by one, I transferred the frames of brood into new hive boxes. After all intact frames were moved, a number of broken pieces of brood comb remained. I placed these in a nucleus hive. After several weeks I found the feral queen hiding among the broken combs in the nucleus hive. The bees in the larger hive produced a new queen. I now have two strong hives with good behavior and characteristics. I welcome these locally-adapted feral genes into my bee yards. Was the colony in the abandoned hive equipment truly feral? Possibly, or its queen may have been purchased from a breeding program by another beekeeper. Lucky find.

--Richard

Bee Transfer Continues

The transfer of feral bees from the tree to the modern Langstroth hive continues. Here is the plan for moving honey bees from a hollow tree to a modern bee hive: As bees leave the tree, they are unable to return to their nest, but they find an acceptable nest inches away in a modern bee hive holding a queen-right bee colony. When the transition started, the feral bees left their nest in the hollow catalpa tree as usual to forage. When the foragers returned, they found their entrance hole blocked by the one-way screen funnel. Desperate to get back to their nest, the foragers probed the area around the entrance hole until they found an alternative entrance around some broken tree bark. As long as bees can return to their feral nest in the hollow tree, the transfer is ineffective. Once I blocked the bees’ new entrance around the broken bark with window screen, duct tape, and roofing shingles, the transfer to the new hive progressed effectively. Beekeepers should return to the transfer site daily to observe the condition of the screen funnel and the bees’ activity. At night, skunks or raccoons may damage the funnel. During daylight hours, the beekeeper should see bees exiting the tree through the funnel. Darkening the funnel with duct tape encourages the bees to walk to the end of the funnel. A lack of bees may mean that the funnel is blocked with dead bees.

Every feral transfer attempt progresses differently, and at times corrective action is required to complete the bee transfer. After a week in place, I checked the Langstroth hive and found a large population of bees, plenty of capped brood, but no eggs or open brood. It appears that the bees killed the marked queen. This required me to bring in another colony of bees in a Langstroth hive body and combine the hives using a newspaper separator. After another week it appears the bees accepted this second queen.

--Richard

Retrieving Feral Bees

Often beekeepers are called upon to remove feral colonies of honey bees from cavities in hollow trees. In many cases the beekeeper can discuss with the property owner if it is necessary to move the bees at all. Those who decide to leave feral bees in place add to the pollination of the neighborhood as well as adding to the genetic diversity of the bees in the area. Sometimes safety is an issue, as when the feral colony’s flight path is close to human or pet paths. I was asked to remove a feral colony of honey bees from a hollow tree located adjacent to the parking area of a public office building. To accomplish the removal of the colony and the saving of the bees, I chose to use a one-way funnel arrangement. The same arrangement can be used to remove bees from the walls of a building.

In today’s photo, working at night, I am fashioning a cone-shaped screen funnel to cover the bees’ entry hole in the tree. It is important that the feral bee nest have a single entrance; the beekeeper must block any extra entrances. With the bees now able to leave their nest but not return, I will place a modern hive close to the funnel to receive the bees. The hive contains a queen-right bee colony with a small population. A good candidate colony for accepting the feral bees is a nucleus colony with a young, egg-laying queen. The transfer of bees works simply: The large number of bees in the tree overwhelms the guard bees in the receiving hive, and they move in. The transfer starts immediately upon placing the funnel, but takes from six to 12 weeks to complete. Eggs laid inside the structure emerge as adults in three weeks, and those bees fly from the tree in another three weeks. Eventually, the colony in the tree declines and perishes while the colony in the hive grows with the new queen.

--Richard

Feral Bees in a Tree

At times honey bees and people conflict when living close together. Ron has a colony of feral honey bees living in a cavity in a tree along his driveway. The bees are alerted when he works in the area, and he would like to remove the bees. Recognizing the importance of honey bees, Ron would like to remove the bees without killing the colony. Some have told him that the only way to remove the bees is to cut down the tree. Ron asks if the method of removing bees from a structure using a funnel is effective. I have removed bees from trees in this manner on a number of occasions. The funnel method allows a beekeeper to transfer the bees into a modern bee hive without killing the colony. Other bee removal techniques often require cutting the tree or using chemicals to drive the bees from their cavity.

I prefer to attempt a colony transfer in the spring when queen bees are available in newly established hives. A tree suitable for a funnel transfer has an entrance close to the ground. Easy access to the opening in the tree is important. The beekeeper must fashion a stand for the hive to receive the bees. It needs to be near the point where the bees enter the tree. The hive stand must be substantial, because the expanding hive can easily weigh several hundred pounds. The beekeeper places a queen-right hive with a small population of bees near the tree’s opening. Next, he closes all tree openings except one which he covers with a screen funnel. This allows the bees to exit, but not reenter the tree. Foraging bees returning to the tree overpower the guard bees of the close-by hive. The receiving hive’s population expands rapidly. The transfer requires six to 12 weeks to complete. Today’s picture shows feral bees fighting with guard bees moments after I placed a funnel over the opening to their tree.

--Richard

Bee Transfer by Funnel

When honey bees swarm, they regularly move into houses and buildings and build a nest in an empty cavity between the inner and outer walls. These spaces provide an opening very similar to the honey bee’s natural home in a rock crevice or a hollow tree. The colony that I removed from a concrete office building was housed as if in a rock cave; the colony that I removed from a woodworking shop in a cypress garage filled a wall cavity similar to a hollow tree. When the conditions are suitable and time is not an issue, a beekeeper can use a screen funnel method to transfer feral honey bees from a structure such as hollow tree or a building to a bee hive. This procedure works exceptionally well in the spring.

The first step in moving the bees out of a structure is to close all of its entrances except one. This can be done by stapling screen or any flexible fabric over any extra entrance holes. Next, the beekeeper brings in a weak, but queen-right hive to accept the bees. I like to use a small colony from my mating nucleus bee yard. I set up a hive with a young queen that is starting to lay a good pattern of eggs. This hive is placed close to the feral bees’ hive entrance. To make the colony transfer, you fashion a funnel from screen wire and attach it to cover the feral bees’ entrance. Foraging bees leaving their hive don’t find their way back inside the funnel. Their numbers overwhelm the guard bees of the close-by weak hive, and they enter this hive instead. The transfer of bees will begin immediately, but will take from six to 12 weeks to complete. Eggs laid in the feral nest won’t emerge for three weeks, and these bees won’t fly as foragers for another three weeks. After the feral bees have been transferred, wax moths will clean out the old nest.

--Richard

Feral Honey Bees Found

Researchers at the University of Arkansas’s Insect Genetics Laboratory have been conducting a study of genetic variation of honey bees in southern and central states by DNA sequencing a portion of the mitochondrial DNA genome. Mitochondrial DNA is maternally inherited and is ideal for tracing honey bee genealogy. Sampling both feral and managed colonies, the researchers sequenced samples from 13 states and found all four honey bee lineages known to exist in the United States: Eastern European, Western European, Middle Eastern, and African. There were two findings of the study which I found most encouraging. First, they found the old German dark bee still existing in eight percent of feral colonies even though this subspecies has not been preferred by beekeepers for over 100 years. I caught a swarm of German dark bees a few years ago and released them in the woods. I know that they survived, because I find their black offspring in my hives from time to time. The other finding that struck me was that the subspecies of honey bee from the Mediterranean East Coast still exists in 11 percent of feral colonies even though this bee has not been imported into the United States since the 1880s. What does this mean? To me, it says that the feral bees have not all died out. They exist and possibly provide the necessary genes for our honey bees to survive in the changing environment that has been so harsh to our managed hives.

Today’s photo shows Debra McCarter of McCarter Coffee Company of Millington, Tennessee with her roasted coffees at the Memphis Farmers Market. Look closely and you can see their monkey logo on the table. Jim McCarter explains that coffee, which is grown at altitude in a band of 10 degrees latitude either side of the equator, is one of the most lucrative agricultural exports for developing countries around the world. The coffee industry employs many individuals in the remote coffee-growing regions. For example, even families not growing coffee may hand sew the cotton coffee sacks for shipping the beans. We see Debra and Jim regularly at farmers markets. You may visit their web site at http://www.mccartercoffee.com/. We enjoy their coffee every morning.
--Richard