Beemaster's International Beekeeping Forum
BEEKEEPING LEARNING CENTER => HONEYBEE REMOVAL => Topic started by: Haddon on June 15, 2011, 05:44:00 pm
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So the question is whats the word do we charge for bee removal from fallen trees / cut trees.
I just got a call about one 50 miles from here.
Told the lady gas money if I could put it in the back of the truck she is going to send me pictures.
So tell me what yall think.
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With the price of petrol what it is today traveling 50 miles is much too much for a swarm of bees unless you are going to be able to salvage at least 35 to 40 lbs of usable honey.
Plus, I'm not sure about your time, but mine is worth $$$$ when I go out on a call like this one.
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Something to keep in mind is if the tree has fallen, there may not be much to salvage. All the comb might be squashed in a honey/bee/way soup inside the tree.
Time and gas if you are doing this as work.
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Okay I don't know if this link will work but here it is
http://bee-removals.com/bee-removal-pictures.html (http://bee-removals.com/bee-removal-pictures.html)
was easier to just put them on my site than play with facebook
Thats the photos the girl just sent me.
Tell me what yall think?
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Take that log home and trap them out. Do you have a way to lift it into your truck? Or a trailer?
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No and don't even know if the truck would hold the weight girl said they tried to roll it over and they couldn't because of the weight. I was thinking I would have to split it there and do the cutout. Price will depend on the amount of work I have to do there.
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I kinda want to do it for the fun of it to tell the truth I have never done a bee tree.
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:-D Just thinkin' "out of the box" .... My first thoughts were:
> That tree is too big to move.
> That cavity is too irregular to easily chainsaw split the log.
> Then, an 'ah ha' moment. A completely "off the wall" idea.......
Why not drill a hole at the other end of the log (from what we can see in your photo), into the cavity, and then at night, dribble some "Bee-Go" into it. It doesn't look like there is a lot of ventilation there. Set up a hive box with one frame of eggs and brood at the open end and see how many of those you can sweep into the box during the evacuation. You get no honey beyond what you scoop out or come back for later but you might get most of the bees and the queen if you're lucky.
Mike
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That's up to you...what it 100 miles of gas and time worth?
Two hours of driving, plus around $20-$30 gas?
That would be at least $100 to make it worthwhile to me (I'm not in it to make money, I just need a little extra to get me moving, since it is far easier to just make a split!). Sometime the hardest part is being able to walk away when they don't want to pay. I agree, cut the section, throw it in the trailer or truck and take it home. That's still three hours of work/driving.
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I think I am going to tell her a hundred bucks that's the cheapest a exterminator would do it for in her area. That would give me 40 bucks or so over cost I hope I don't think the hive will be worth much but I would love the pics of me opening the trunk for my site. :)
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Based on my own personal experience, I would only transport the tree section in an upright position.
Jay
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Sounds like you're itching to do it. If you are and you've got the time, do it. Look at it as a great learning experience that will help in the future when you've got a challenge like this nearby.
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Just ran across this and thought it might help.
http://www.youtube.com/user/BeeHealth#p/u (http://www.youtube.com/user/BeeHealth#p/u)
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As beekeepers, it's a good video. As for tree cutters, they need to go back to kindergarten.
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i think you could open it. what if you chain saw it part way through on both sides and then wedge split it the rest of the way? don't know how long it is, but since the comb seems to be intact, it might be worth the try....if you can get the queen and a good bit of brood comb.
you really need someone experience to help you out. someone who can help you spot the queen and get the comb squared away properly. would be a shame to do all that work for nothing. and someone who knows about splitting logs.........
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Similar situation last year with an old oak tree that fell down. A couple of beekeepers and I went to cut them out. One man cut both ends until we found the beginning and end. Then he chainsawed very slowly until the hive was exposed. We probably got lucky that we never disturbed the hive or the comb. We were able to cut out the comb and tie into frames. Not much brood or honey. They had just swarmed a week ago.
We scooped the remaining bees with our hands into the super and never saw the queen. We saw fanning at the super entrance and felt good that we got the queen. Went back at night and all the bees were in that super. Not one bee left in the tree.
I was the lucky one and got to take this hive home and they are the most prolific bees ever. Feisty, but strong.
Good Luck on getting your hive
annette
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Well I got it Saturday. Here is a pic of it own the trailer.
(http://www.bee-removals.com/uploads/2/8/9/3/2893159/8746032_orig.jpg)
and small video
http://youtu.be/jGjoJRJAl58 (http://youtu.be/jGjoJRJAl58)
Well it was 100 degrees Saturday with a index of 110 and a bee suit on. One darn bee would not quit buzzing me so I couldn't take the hood off. I tried my best to swat that darn bee it was so hot I had to go get in the truck 3 times to cool off. Would not have been hard at all if my chainsaw had wanted to run and when it did run the chain was to dull and it had so little power left that it wouldn't cut. I end up using the clients I need to just go buy a new one.
I will split the hive today or tomorrow. Right now it is set up in the back with a board on top the log to keep rain out.
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glad you made it home ok. how far did you have to drive loaded like that? :evil:
now, make sure you take pictures of each step. no matter how it ends up, it will be a good one to learn on.
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50 miles
I should have took a pic of it set up in the back yard they don't have that much comb and seem to have been threw hell. Guy even tried to burn the tree a laugh able attempt but it paid gas money and was not that hard to do other than my crappy Craftsman chainsaw, and I had another job there that I needed to look at I will not be doing it I will post pics of it also.
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I busted the log yesterday afternoon SHB and wax moth larva every where the log was down for 3 weeks. Very small bee population I hope to get the video edited down to something reasonable tonight so I can post it.
I hope they can't pupate in a ash pile that is where the log ended up I might even soak the field in pyreth
tomorrow. I set the log on fire it just scorched really but hopfully that killed the larva on it I don't need 4000 SHBs in my yard.
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sunshine and birds will take care of exposed larva, if you scorched the inside of the log more than likely that did the trick.
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Thanks for this thread! Love reading about the cutouts and this was a fun one.
Did you get the queen? Will it become a viable hive? or were they too far gone to save?
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When I moved the log out to my yard I placed it next to a swarm that had went queen less in hopes of using the queen out of the log and combining them both. Well I split the log 4 ways it was just empty brood comb no eggs or larva so I would think the queen was gone. I opened the top of the queen less swarm then would shake each piece of the log and then haul it to the burn pile. When I got to the last piece I shook each frame of the swarm to get the bees in the air orienting back to the box then dropped the log shaking the bees loss from it with the swarm already fanning they were all on the box within a minute. Now I am going to combine that with the weakest of my hives if I can find a queen in there.
Still didn't get to edit the video its 44 minutes worth of me splitting the log and saying that's nasty. :)
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Yep, editing the videos is the hard part. We've got a Canon t2i which shoots beautiful HD video, but editing and uploading it takes FOREVER. I've had it take 5 hours to upload a 10 minute video to Youtube.
I'm thinking of using a 640x480 camera(lower quality) I have for filming cutouts just so it'll be easier (faster) to edit and upload.