Anyone work with beekeepers?

[Gorman]

I have a crane job next week and one of the trees being removed has a honey bee hive in it. The hive is close to the ground but I have to pick the piece while the crane is there. A beekeeper is meeting me on the job to get them out but I'm not sure how much I should expect to get stung.

Any protective clothing ideas?

 

[boreality]

Anyone work with beekeepers?

Depends on the bees and the weather. Some are more aggresive than others. Taping your cuffs and a headnet should do it. Are you allergic? The beekeeper should have some extra gear for you to borrow.

The sound and vibration from a chainsaw sends bees into a meditative state. They'll all just go to sleep once you start cutting. Nuthin to worry about.

 

[Winch]

I've rigged out a few hives, not gotten stung once. It's a state of mind. Don't be aggressive or scared, I bet you'll do fine. Honey bees don't want to hurt you, they just want to protect the hive, and they don't go into protect-mode unless you are really up in their shi*.

Weather-dependent - get there as EARLY as possible. Can you pick the piece before 9am? They'll be all sleepy, less stingy.

Don't cut into the hive.

 

[Fernhorn]

Bee Forum

Ask these good people for info. Or I can ask for you if you don't want to register. Just let me know.

Wear light colors if not white.

Work early. And work in the rain if possible.

I can work my bees without any protective clothing but I know them.

I would say it's the <u>smoke</u> from the chainsaw that throws them off because they are fairly aggravated by vibration.

It's better to be below their entrance than above.

I would take a moment to enjoy their presence they smell fear.

If you get stung you should have a spray bottle of lemon grass oil/water or something to cover the smell to spray on the sting because after one stings you it's on like donkey kong. They have a pheramone that incites them to sting once one stings you.

PS: It's pretty important to know your location by the way.
If they are africanized- your toast.

 

[Gorman]

No, no, no. Not africanized. I wouldn't be concerned for their safety in that case. It's the butt log so I might be able to no have to rig it if I can get my loader to it and pull it over.
That way I can remove the whole tree except that log and take care of it after the beekeeper does his thing.

Light colors is a good thing to know. I guess I have a good excuse to buy that pair of white denim pants.

 

[jomoco]

Determine their entrance and exit holes by watching closely during the day, their active time. Then come back after dark, their inactive time, and screen them in with screen and a staple gun. Preferably the night before you actually do the job.

A full bee suit is only bouta hundred bucks.

Anyone who thinks you can mess with a beehive without getting them royally ticked off is in for a rude awakening.

I'd be wearing a bee suit on both the upper and lower cuts between the hive even with them screened in.

The best procedure is to hire a beekeeper to bring out a box, grab the queen, put her in that box, wait a couple days until the entire colony figures out where she is and joins her. Then take the entire colony to their new home at the beekeeper's home.

jomoco

 

[jeffswede]

Early in the morning before the sun comes out.

 

[ginkobalboa]

In my one experience working with a keeper I did not get stung, but another guy on the crew did three times. He was running around and making a lot of noise like a little girl. The keeper had a nifty tool that was basically a vacuum hooked to a wood box, but we couldn't get our power source to work so he extracted them the old fashioned way by hand with a brush and smoke. He said that if he could have used the vacuum, they wouldn't have gotten agitated at all. Their hive was like the one you described. It was in the trunk of an old Black Cherry, about 5 feet off the ground. I felled the shank, put on an extra keeper's suit and started cutting the log where the keeper told me to. I did a lot of cutting on that log and the bees didn't seem to care about it at all. They didn't get agitated until we started really getting into the hive. Overall though, it was a pretty cool experience and I was happy to save them. It did make the job take much longer than normal, but I was on city time for that one.

 

[BOTS]

Once the bee keeper gets the queen its good to wait a few days for the strays to go away that wasnt there when queen has been removed.

This hive is outside on a live oak limb with ivy over roof, HO wanted limb gone, so bee dude did his stuff and I came back in 3 days and remover limb....still were a few buzzing around but didnt get stung

 

[Gorman]

Sooooo, the removal went great. I did not make as much money on it since I had to screw around with the butt log on the ground after the beekeeper took the queen. The ho's were hawking me the whole time. I made sure I didn't get stung and I have to wait till later this week to come back for some pieces of wood I couldn't get to because the bees were swarming around them.

I should have charged extra to account for this, "oh by the way, you're coming this week, I forgot to tell you about this giant hive in the tree", but whatever.
No good goes unpunished.