Rescuing a Feral Colony from a Storm-Damaged Tree

In August we were called to a storm-damaged tree in East Lothian which had lost its crown. There had been bees occupying it since at least 1982, so the owners were keen to save the bees if possible.

The top of the cavity was open to the elements, which would likely kill off the colony in winter. Additionally the tree was unstable and needed felling or would fall down sooner or later, so we had to act.

It took around 3 hours in total to fell, the tree, cut into the cavity and carefully remove the comb and the bees. Rain showers on and off kept the bees from flying too much, and a break over lunch allowed the main cluster left after removing the comb to move into the hive box. There was over 40kg of stores in comb, some of which appeared to have been there for a long time, so they would likely have survived the winter easily, if not for the damage to the tree.

We saw a few small patches of brood while cutting out the comb, so we knew the queen would be in there somewhere, but didn't know for certain we had her until inspections a few weeks later when we saw her along with brood in all stages. They are now closed up for winter at an isolation apiary, with plenty of stores to keep them going until the spring.

The bees appear to be very uniformly dark, which may be an indicator of native genetics. Assuming the colony survives the winter we will undertake genetic testing of the colony in the spring.

Music by: Bensound.com/royalty-free-music
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Artist: : Benjamin Tissot