Great photo of a huge feral colony

LET-CA · 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/Feral02.jpg
http://lennytaylor.freeyellow.com/Feral03.jpg

Understudy · April 20, 2007, 09:12:44 PM

Now that is a hive in a tree. :shock:

Sincerely,
Brendhan

bluegrass · April 20, 2007, 09:13:17 PM

Wish I could find one like that :-D

Mici · April 20, 2007, 09:15:22 PM

darn...i'd really like to know how this opened hives cope with rain...

Understudy · 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

gkempf · 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.

TwT · 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

mick · April 21, 2007, 12:15:55 AM

Strike me pink! I wonder how long thats been there, what a great gift!

wtiger · 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.

LET-CA · 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

Look in the directory under hobbies and then beekeeping photos. They are on the last page of the album.

Mici · April 21, 2007, 05:35:24 AM

call in the redneck with a ladder on top of his pick-up !!!:-D LOL

JP · 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!

ZuniBee · 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.

Understudy · 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

LocustHoney · April 21, 2007, 10:13:10 PM

Holy @#$%#!!!!!!! Is that REAL???? :shock:

JP · 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.

papabear · April 22, 2007, 11:25:29 AM

That looks like it would lots of fun to remove. :-D

JP · 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?

Cindi · 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