Bee rescuer Dael Wilcox with the Windsor Square queen bee safely in the cage.
A lot has happened to our local bee since our last story! Thanks to the work of bee rescuer Dael Wilcox and his capable assistant Lauren Gabor, a neighbor of Windsor Square, the relocation of the bees is essentially complete.
Typically, relocating a beehive of this size (estimated at 50,000 bees) can take some time. To speed things up a bit, Wilcox injects compressed air, smoke and essential oils into the tree, causing the bees to nudge the bees and leave the hive sooner rather than later. According to Wilcox, the bees left the beehive with the queen sometime between Tuesday night and Wednesday night!
Thanks to Lauren Gabor for sharing her photos and for being excited about how it all happened:
“On Tuesday night, Dale was pumping smoke and non-toxic mineral oils through three small holes drilled in the tree. This does not harm the bees, but they do not like it and the sensory conditions are no longer optimal.
Dael Wilcox uses compressed air, smoke and essential oils to encourage the bees to leave the hive sooner rather than later.
Wednesday we cordoned off the area and put up signs explaining what happened.
Gabor posted notes informing neighbors about the beehive’s move.
It was a day of rest and regrouping. Some of the guards may have left to explore new locations, making the new beehive openings vulnerable to opportunistic (“predator”) bees after honey in the tree. This was the most intense day of activity on the beehive.
There were chaotic movements that differed from the normal entry and exit routes of an undisturbed beehive, suggesting that the bees were disoriented, were just learning, and had not given their bee cohorts precise entry coordinates. This could have included both our bees and bees from several other beehives within 3 miles (normal territory).
The chaos also continued in the evening when the bees usually settled down for the night, at 9 p.m. it was quiet.
The queen bee flew to the nearest source of light, which kept the beehive warm all night.
Then when I turned around I saw a sizable group in the iron fence across from the tree! It was a spherical shape that extended into bushes and was very much alive. Keep warm under the light. That was very unusual, so I contacted Dael immediately because I thought the queen might be in. He told me to meet him at the beehive at 8 a.m. the next morning. I was so happy to see the bees hadn’t moved! As Dael explained, it was still too cool and dark for them to wake up. And they had no goal.
(According to Wilcox, the queen, unfamiliar with flying and pregnant, flew to the nearest object she could find, the light on the fence above the sidewalk, where she found warmth and the beehive stayed all night.)
Dael thought the queen was probably in the group. He climbed up to gently suckle the bees and look for her.
The trap is still empty. He will look for them as soon as the bees are in the vacuum box. I’m still trying to find her. After suckling all of the heaped bees, he removed the holding box and looked for the queen with a flashlight. Success!!!!!! The queen is here and I saw her!
With a flashlight, Wilcox was able to identify the queen in the cage.
After all, the queen was surrounded by a tight group of her minions. We fed them honey Dael had brought back from Hollywood Hills and sprinkled them with water. We later packed ice cream in a gallon ziplock bag to keep them cool until they are released into their new beehive.
Wilcox holds the cage with the queen bee.
Dale will wait until evening to put them in their new beehive box so they don’t fly away.
Meanwhile, the beehive was buzzing with opportunistic predatory bees smelling of honey, and there were no more guards to protect the beehive! Dael sucked them into another storage box. Since they don’t have a queen, he’ll dump them into our queen’s same new beehive. He will incorporate them by spraying non-toxic oils to neutralize their odor so they can serve the new queen. The new beehive must be more than 3 miles from the original to prevent the programmed bees from returning to this tree. You will now learn to identify with your new box and make it your home.
As a recycling effort, Dale recommends removing the holes so that neighboring bees can eat the honey stored in the tree so it doesn’t go to waste. (We cannot reap it because it is too difficult to achieve). For the next three days or so it will get too hectic in and around the tree for a new colony to establish itself. The tree should be closed by tomorrow evening. “
Wilcox told the buzz it might be a few more days before he can close the tree.
Thanks to his and Gabor’s efforts, thousands of feral honey bees have been relocated to temporary beehives since work began last weekend.
Dael will send a photo of the Windsor Square queen bee in her new beehive. We’ll be posting this close-up photo of the queen in her new beehive in a few days, possibly this weekend.