Author Topic: Feral Rambling...  (Read 5444 times)

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Offline LazyBkpr

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Feral Rambling...
« on: March 06, 2014, 10:21:41 am »
Between my father and I, we have about 300 Acres. Almost all farm lands except where the crick passes his property, and meanders down past Mine..

    The Bee tree thing has intrigued me..  Sometime last summer I read about someone having a bee tree on their property..  a tree that was cut, so they hauled it home and set it up.. i have seen several other posts of similar things.. most, waiting to capture the bees within in one way or another..   I want to do the opposite.  So, in preperation, as I cut wood last fall, i found two suitable trees. One was a massive oak that was hollow, the other was a big thorny locust.
   The cavity in the oak is around 23 inches across, the locust cavity is 17 ish inches across..  I can get two 4 foot sections from the oak, and three from the locust.
  Intentions;
   Shave the bark from the outside, prime and paint them. Open the tops enough to hang bars..  like a top bar hive would have. Then seal the top with 1" boards. Insulate the top with foam, then cover the foam with 4x4's and put a pitched roof on it to shed water. Wide enough for dripping water to miss the hollow truck completely. Set these on top of the Oak and walnut stumps down along the bottom, and bore.. ??  Inch and a half holes? about a foot above the bottom of the tree. Cover the holes with #4 hardware cloth  Put lemongrass oil near the entrance,  and walk away, forever.   OK, not forever..  I can meander along the bottom, mushroom hunting, Shed hunting, or deer hunting and look to see if those hollow stumps have attracted bees yet.

   Why would I do this? What have I got to gain?
   Well...  (Scratches head)  I have no idea.. beyond being able to catch swarms shed by the colonies that live in those trees....   I have just felt compelled to do it since the idea first exploded in my head, destroying about half the brain cells I have left.

   I am actually considering Spraying the trunks with Bedliner. The two part epoxy GOOD bedliner just to make them last as long as possible..  I can imagine such a thing still being there when my grandchildren are my age.  Provided I ever HAVE grandchildren.
   
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Offline Perry

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Re: Feral Rambling...
« Reply #1 on: March 06, 2014, 10:24:18 am »
It's thinking "outside" the box that has brought us all kinds of new information and discoveries. If it feels good, do it!
"It is not the man who has too little, but the man who craves more, that is poor."      
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Offline Marbees

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Re: Feral Rambling...
« Reply #2 on: March 07, 2014, 03:31:08 am »
Do it, just skip the bedliner thing. Oak and locust will last long, long time. Post some pictures:-))
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Offline apisbees

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Re: Feral Rambling...
« Reply #3 on: March 20, 2014, 05:01:36 pm »
you get a section of oak tree full of honey how are you going to lift it. if you have other hives in your area they are competing with your managed colonies for bee forage. The more feral colonies you let escape the more the limited resources in the area is stretched between the colonies.
Honey Judge, Beekeeping Display Coordinator, Armstrong Fair and Rodeo.

Offline tbonekel

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Re: Feral Rambling...
« Reply #4 on: March 20, 2014, 05:28:33 pm »
I'm sort of with you, but you lost me at the painting and especially the bedliner. I would think being able to enjoy something that at least looks like a tree gives it that natural feel. If its going to look like a big Column of bedliner, why not just put a standard Lang down there?

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Offline LazyBkpr

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Re: Feral Rambling...
« Reply #5 on: March 26, 2014, 05:27:28 pm »
hehe..  I actually have no intention of lifting them or working them. Just a couple of locations for the feral hives that will last a long time. A place for me to put my own swarm traps to keep my feral colonies stocked.
   The paint etc is just to make them last as long as possible.. preferably until I am long gone.
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Offline apisbees

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Re: Feral Rambling...
« Reply #6 on: March 26, 2014, 06:56:18 pm »
Just about all areas have a clause in their bee act to do with hives being able to be inspected Here is the one for Iowa
http://coolice.legis.iowa.gov/Cool-ICE/default.asp?category=billinfo&service=IowaCode&ga=83&input=160
Quote
160.5  INSTRUCTIONS -- HIVES -- IMPORTED BEES.
       
         2.  It shall be unlawful to keep bees in any containers except
      hives with movable frames permitting ready examination in those
      counties where area clean-up inspection is in progress as may be
      proclaimed in official regulation.
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Offline LazyBkpr

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Re: Feral Rambling...
« Reply #7 on: March 26, 2014, 11:07:37 pm »
 2.  It shall be unlawful to keep bees in any containers except
      hives with movable frames permitting ready examination in those
      counties where area clean-up inspection is in progress as may be
      proclaimed in official regulation.


hehe, well, I don't intend to put bees in those hollow logs. I won't be keeping them, just providing a space they may decide to inhabit rather than the eave of someones house, barn or outbuildings. I won't be gathering honey, I'll only be attempting to convince the swarms they cast to take up residence in my swarm boxes. If they can fine me for doing that, its only a small step from fining someone for not removing the bees from the eave of their barn.
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Offline Slowmodem

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Re: Feral Rambling...
« Reply #8 on: March 26, 2014, 11:46:19 pm »
hehe, well, I don't intend to put bees in those hollow logs. I won't be keeping them, just providing a space they may decide to inhabit rather than the eave of someones house, barn or outbuildings. I won't be gathering honey, I'll only be attempting to convince the swarms they cast to take up residence in my swarm boxes. If they can fine me for doing that, its only a small step from fining someone for not removing the bees from the eave of their barn.

Years ago they put bees in sweetgum tree hives.  Here's my great great uncle Dan Myers in Cades Cove (Now it's the Smoky Mountains National Park).

Greg Whitehead
Ten Mile, TN
Beekeeping at 26.4 kbs

Offline blueblood

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Re: Feral Rambling...
« Reply #9 on: March 26, 2014, 11:55:38 pm »
Go for it Lazy, I like your idea.  And, stick it to the man. 

Offline apisbees

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Re: Feral Rambling...
« Reply #10 on: March 27, 2014, 02:10:37 am »
Disease can become a problem specially in dark comb.
Your uncle Dan still managed his bees.
When Varoa loads become to high in a hive, bees have been known to abscond and join other colonies. these colonies will be your managed hives that you may have just preformed your mite treatment on only to have them re infested with a heave mite load again.
You are going to allow these bees to compete for forage against your managed colonies and get nothing out of it other than the occasional swarm. But only if you manage to trap or capture it.
If its more pollinators you are after put up some mason bee blocks and bumble bee nesting boxes.
Being from an area where neglected bees and feral colonies were a problem for reinfecting bees with AFB you do not want to take the chance of it getting a foothold in bees you can not find or manage. The reason that every State and Provence in North America has the line that bees shall be kept in inspectable removable frame hives is because of the problems with disease and keeping it under control. Most of the apiary Departments where founded because of the need to combat diseases that were being found in the hives and being spread. They were set up to educate, eradicate hives infected with disease, and to promote best practices in keeping bees, that included keeping bees in manageable equipment.

Perry you worked for the bee health inspection service last year, What are your thoughts on this issue?
Tec with your experience working bees commercially and now apiary specialist for Texas university?
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Offline LazyBkpr

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Re: Feral Rambling...
« Reply #11 on: March 27, 2014, 09:56:35 pm »

   Feral bees are making a comeback here in a big way, but they have no place left to go. The fence rows, ditches, cricks and even the river banks are being dozed in to make room to plant MORE corn.
   In so doing, a field may gain a dozen or more acres in size. With corn prices high, and yields beginning to AVERAGE 200 bushel per acre.. that dozen or more acres is worth as many thousand dollars as there are acres. Bees are moving into houses, barns, sheds, equipment, Silos, even dog houses and gas grills. From which they are usually cut out or outright killed.
   All I want is to provide a space that they will not be bothered. Some folks build bird houses. Some make Bat houses. Some folks build nesting sites for ducks and geese. Some try to save the little endangered frog from the crews trying to build new bridges. I will build bee domiciles, and insure that in my lifetime they are not disturbed.
   Down in the bottom, three, four, even six old hollow logs isn't going to affect my production any more than the feral hives that used to flourish in the area did. The closest permanent feral hive I know of is about three miles away. I know where there are several more between five and ten miles. Fifteen years ago there were about twenty locations I knew of. I found them running tree lines while coon hunting. Those places are now fields. Every single one of them. Places I knew of as a kid are also long gone. Ponds I fished in were filled in. Wash outs I used to play in are filled in and tiled. Hundreds of farms.. farms that raised their families on 40 to 80 acres of ground, with out buildings, and timber filled draws and stream beds lined by trees. All gone and turned to fields to raise corn by farmers that now farm thousands of acres instead of 40 or 80 acres. I don't blame the farmers completely. Farming is part of my blood, and I am as much to blame.
    So as I see it, there will be feral colonies, taking up residence in houses, barns, sheds and MANY other places where they are a nuisance. Offering them a better place, and then attempting to capture the swarms they send out would only be of service, rather than an annoyance or danger.  Without my miniscule effort, they will find somewhere else to go, they will still send out swarms, which will also find someplace else to go.
   There WILL be feral colonies no matter what we do.
   So in following the line of thinking that they will spread disease, should we go out and do our best to get rid of those feral colonies in the barns, houses, sheds and the few remaining trees they have, because they might have diseases?
   
   In my mind, Replacing locations that were lost because of greed should be a priority, rather than something to argue against. Giving them a place to inhabit they will not be a nuisance a boon, rather than a bust.

   Interested in other opinions as well!!

   LOL Blue..
    I try not to have it out with "the man"  It means I screwed up, and I hate doing that.

   That is an AWESOME picture/story SlowModem!!  I love it!
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Offline iddee

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Re: Feral Rambling...
« Reply #12 on: March 27, 2014, 10:01:11 pm »
""" Interested in other opinions as well!!"""

Maybe slip around the neighborhood and drill holes in their soffits.   8) :P :laugh: :laugh: :laugh:
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Offline LazyBkpr

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Re: Feral Rambling...
« Reply #13 on: March 27, 2014, 10:02:19 pm »
LOL!!   Job security at its best!!!
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