Beemaster's International Beekeeping Forum

BEEKEEPING LEARNING CENTER => GENERAL BEEKEEPING - MAIN POSTING FORUM. => Topic started by: LET-CA on April 20, 2007, 09:06:06 PM

Title: Great photo of a huge feral colony
Post by: LET-CA on April 20, 2007, 09:06:06 PM
My brother found this feral colony in the parking lot of a commercial office building in Santa Clara, California yesterday (19 April 2007)  He's a beekeeper too.  He said the colony is approximately 3 feet tall, located about 12 feet above ground level.  We're trying to figure out how many boxes to take with us to take this down!

http://lennytaylor.freeyellow.com/Feral01.jpg (http://lennytaylor.freeyellow.com/Feral01.jpg)
http://lennytaylor.freeyellow.com/Feral02.jpg (http://lennytaylor.freeyellow.com/Feral02.jpg)
http://lennytaylor.freeyellow.com/Feral03.jpg (http://lennytaylor.freeyellow.com/Feral03.jpg)

Title: Re: Great photo of a huge feral colony
Post by: Understudy on April 20, 2007, 09:12:44 PM
Now that is a hive in a tree.  :shock:


Sincerely,
Brendhan
Title: Re: Great photo of a huge feral colony
Post by: bluegrass on April 20, 2007, 09:13:17 PM
Wish I could find one like that :-D
Title: Re: Great photo of a huge feral colony
Post by: Mici on April 20, 2007, 09:15:22 PM
darn...i'd really like to know how this opened hives cope with rain...
Title: Re: Great photo of a huge feral colony
Post by: Understudy on April 20, 2007, 09:16:53 PM
Quote from: Mici on April 20, 2007, 09:15:22 PM
darn...i'd really like to know how this opened hives cope with rain...
They go between the walls of comb and protect the queen.


Sincerely,
Brendhan
Title: Re: Great photo of a huge feral colony
Post by: gkempf on April 20, 2007, 09:55:36 PM
Holy Cow!  i would sure like to capture that one! or even help,that would be a blast.
Title: Re: Great photo of a huge feral colony
Post by: TwT on April 20, 2007, 10:48:03 PM
man now thats a hive, I bet they mean also, but if not it would take about 4-7 deeps from the way the pic looks, and bring some bucket because I am only tlking about the brood comb for the deeps  ;) :-D
Title: Re: Great photo of a huge feral colony
Post by: mick on April 21, 2007, 12:15:55 AM
Strike me pink! I wonder how long thats been there, what a great gift!
Title: Re: Great photo of a huge feral colony
Post by: wtiger on April 21, 2007, 02:34:36 AM
Wow.  That's a huge feral colony.  Not to mention a colony exposed on a branch.  More pictures please.
Title: Re: Great photo of a huge feral colony
Post by: LET-CA on April 21, 2007, 02:57:35 AM
Two more photos have been added to the original posting.  They can also be found at my smugmug site.

http://lenny.smugmug.com (http://lenny.smugmug.com)

Look in the directory under hobbies and then beekeeping photos.  They are on the last page of the album.
Title: Re: Great photo of a huge feral colony
Post by: Mici on April 21, 2007, 05:35:24 AM
call in the redneck with a ladder on top of his pick-up !!!:-D LOL
Title: Re: Great photo of a huge feral colony
Post by: JP on April 21, 2007, 07:35:59 AM
Redneck bee removal- Got truck and ladder, don't need no other stinkn' tools, just me, my truck, my ladder!
Title: Re: Great photo of a huge feral colony
Post by: ZuniBee on April 21, 2007, 12:07:04 PM
You are getting great experience with swarms. I can't wait to find my first swarm but this one is incredible. Can't wait to see how you get it.
Title: Re: Great photo of a huge feral colony
Post by: Understudy on April 21, 2007, 08:46:51 PM
Quote from: Mici on April 21, 2007, 05:35:24 AM
call in the redneck with a ladder on top of his pick-up !!!:-D LOL

:-D

Sorry, I am busy, drinking beer and listening to bad country music.

Actually it is a nice hive but doing a removal like that would take a lot of work.

Sincerely,
Brendhan
Title: Re: Great photo of a huge feral colony
Post by: LocustHoney on April 21, 2007, 10:13:10 PM
Holy @#$%#!!!!!!!  Is that REAL???? :shock:
Title: Re: Great photo of a huge feral colony
Post by: JP on April 22, 2007, 07:39:54 AM
That hive looks huge. I would definitely have help removing that one. When they're exposed like that the hive is one big hodgepodge of comb. It's not like removing other hives such as in a wall void or tree for that matter, no removing one section at a time, you have to cut segments away from each other, its very messy.
Title: Re: Great photo of a huge feral colony
Post by: papabear on April 22, 2007, 11:25:29 AM
That looks like it would lots of fun to remove. :-D
Title: Re: Great photo of a huge feral colony
Post by: JP on April 22, 2007, 12:32:02 PM
Hey Papabear, I see you're in Crowley, we're practically neighbors. Your bees pretty busy right now making honey?
Title: Re: Great photo of a huge feral colony
Post by: Cindi on April 22, 2007, 12:43:54 PM
How can that happen?  Only in California you say?  Best of this day, great health to all.  Cindi