# March Cut-Out, Bee Tree



## Durandal (Aug 19, 2007)

First removal of the year. I tried my hand at removing a colony from a tree. Seemed to work just fine. Our audience behind the trailer home already were into a couple six packs before we made the first cut. 

I am trying to figure out if I would charge for such a thing. I think I nailed a great colony, but cut-outs are so darn iffy on the best of days. You lose more queens than get most of the time. Not like catching an easy swarm.

Here are some pics and a direct link to the news update on my website. If its valuable to you (whomever reads it) let me know (here if you like). I'd like to know if someone at least finds it interesting.

Heres the link: http://www.carriagehousefarmllc.com/Beekeeping/News_%26_Education/Entries/2009/3/10_First_Bee_Removal_of_2009_Completed.html

Images:


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## alleyyooper (Apr 22, 2005)

We charge a inspection fee at least.
We could no longer afford the drives with near $5.00 a gallon fuel cost last year. Just look at a nest of yellow jackets or be told the bees were only 5 foot up in a tree branch only to find them 12 feet up and going inside a knot hole. Amazing the amount of people on this earth that do not know their fingers from their toes.

 Al


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## Durandal (Aug 19, 2007)

I hear ya Alley. I do charge for in home cut-outs and this one was free because it was right up the road from our farm (maybe 5 miles) and the guy had lost his job.

I also needed experience with a tree and I hate charging for something I have no experience with.

Last year we had so many calls when the hurricane Ike rolled through like a bull in a china shop. I saw one such colony in a true tree fall that had force in the drop and its simply a mess. I tell them that all I would be doing is removing a hazard and the cost was 250.00.

They balked. "I thought the bees were in danger, aren't they valuable? You should be paying me."

Oh well.

This year I am happy that I have enough gear to hive swarms. Last year I was planning on keeping four colonies and I ended up with 12 in odds and ends. If we have a good year I am prepared. 

Edit: Before I go out with my the farm truck (F350 Super Duty) I roll out in my Subaru, which gets good enough mileage, to look if its nearby. Most swarm calls I simply take the car.


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## alleyyooper (Apr 22, 2005)

Ya bee are valuable. You open the tree, house, barn or other building up and get the bees out with a laying queen. when you are finished give me a call and I will give you the price of a nuc for them.
See I can stay at home and buy bees that are shipped right to the door. I know the queen is alive when I get them and if she isn't they will ship me a brand new one over night.

But if I have to open up a tree and HOPE I get the queen and a bunch of bees that may or may not died before the queen has enough brood in the new hive hatching to keep her alive. It is a gamble on my part that I do not get a colony with some illness that could spread to my other colonies. It is a gamble on my part that they will amount to some thing by the time winter arrives.

We do not keep swarms nor removals near any of our other bees till they prove healthy. We keep one bee yard just for those for the first year. Some (swarms) look fine after a month or two so we will move them sooner than a year.

 Al


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## sleeps723 (Sep 10, 2006)

i do alot of bee trees. i have done a few for free and have charged up to 750. i usually range around 150.


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## alleyyooper (Apr 22, 2005)

A couple of other things I hadn't said about doing the bees for free. (1. Most people have told me they tried to kill the colony with spray and many have said they had thought they had. Only they couldn't get to the queen nurse bees or brood so they never did die.
(2. I have also been told they called me after calling a pest removal company who told they it was againest the law for them to kill the bees. Or the pest removal wanted to paid too.

 Al


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## roycoates (Apr 25, 2008)

Nice work and write up. I enjoyed the reading and seeing


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## gracie88 (May 29, 2007)

Very nice, good pics, makes me wish it was sunny here (wait, everything makes me wish it was sunny  )


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## XCricketX (Jun 7, 2006)

Thank you for this! We still have honey bees in a log out here that I want to cultivate them somehow. We were going to do a funnel attached to a new hive to see if they would move into it. I haven't been able to get equipment yet... but definitely want to do this! *still studying and learning*

Thanks!


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