• March 23, 2008: Honey Bee Rescue - Interlachen FL

  Richard Martyniak, M.Sc. Entomologist 1

  At the recent University of Florida Bee College, Nancy Gentry, president of Northeast Florida Honey Bee Association and PR director of Florida State Bee Keepers Association, told me of a tree that had fallen over near the Interlachen Post Office. A bee hive was in the tree and had apparently survived the fall. Tree surgeons were unable to work on the tree until the bees were removed or controlled.

  Here you can see a picture(click to enlarge) of the tree where it has fallen in a field. It's important to note that this is a rural setting and the risk of stinging is very low. I have to stress that doing live removals is more risky, to neighbors, removal specialists and yes, even to the bees. It takes quite a bit of labor to do a succesful removal and even then, the probability of the bees surviving can be very low due to several factors. Also, performing live removals where African bees are endemic is probably not a very good idea. More on that later.

   

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  Here, Nancy is inspecting the portion of the colony that had fallen on the ground. Notice that she is not wearing protective gear. While I don't recommend this, she works with bees daily and knows the risks. We suited up shortly after this when we started working the bees. We suffered about 20 stings between us, even with full bee suits. This portion was deemed unworthy of rescue, due to disease and parasites.

 

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  This is the upper portion of the colony. It was quite active and apparently healthy. We spent 6 hours removing this colony and rehiving into a hive box.

 

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This is the hive box we relocated the brood comb into. We placed it right near the tree hole opening of the tree. Hopefully the remainder of the colony will relocate to it. I will be visiting the colony on Tuesday to check up on things. Wish them luck !!