buddah's bee beneath the banyan trees

I thought I'd post a foto or two and a couple of links folks have sent my way. This tree is down in the valley in the NTBG. We took a cool little jitney to the McBryde Gardens. They called KBee to remove the hive and try to preserve it instead of just exterminating it.

Three of us showed up on an early Sunday morning at the Kalaheo gate and was shuttled down to the stream. This grove of trees, where they filmed parts of Jurassic Park, was just off the walking path but begged to be explored when tours paused for photo ops. Nobody had been stung but NTBG managers wanted the hive removed and we went in to try and find the queen and coax them out and into our boxes.

Well, we weren't so persuasive. Not with some long metal prying devices(some dull, some sharp) and smokers To make matters worse, the tree's cavity that hosted the bees was no wider than a gloved hand and the back of it was an arms length too far away. 

Needless to say, we didn't find the queen. We chased them to the back of the cavity with our bear like prodding and smoking and barely got enough brood comb to fill up a couple of frames. The hive never transitioned to the box and the bees got a free ride to Kokee where they have blended into the mountain blossoms.

Removing bees is not easy but can be rewarding on many levels. If you're interested in learning more leave a comment and some contact info and we'll get you on assignment to help remove some pesky hive waiting to be boxed and managed.