Bee Beard Gets a Life (20,000).
The creation of Bee Beard was influenced by many different people. Hal (The Story of Hal’s Bee Trees) was the main instigator. He started his first log hive around May or June 2011. I was impressed that a swarm had actually picked his log hive to live in. I liked his hands-off log hive credo…
“BEES WILL NOT BE MOVED, MEDICATED OR ROBBED OF HONEY
THE COLONY MAY SWARM AS DIRECTED BY NATURE”
I wanted to try the same thing, but not being retired I knew I wouldn’t be able to spend so much time hollowing it out. I looked up log hives on the web and came across Gaia Bees. I emailed Michael Thiele who gave me directions on hollowing out the log. It was about this time that a new beekeeping friend, Terry Kelly of Berkeley, a writer, top bar beekeeper, and mushroom log grower, started sending me packets of bee articles he liked. My log was partially hollowed out when another packet of articles came in the mail. The very first thing I saw were copies of Slovenian Bee Hive Art. Not only were there paintings but there was a face carved on the front of a hive that served as the entrance to the hive. The bees entered through the mouth, nose, and eyes into the hive. It took all of 10 seconds to decide I wanted to do something like that on my log hive.
I shared my idea of a wood carving with my wife, and she suggested I try the new chainsaw wood carver in town. I talked up the idea with Brian and Zada Vorwaller. He offered some suggestions and we came up with Bee Beard. His wife, Zada videotaped the carving and my son-in-law, Jim Montgomery edited, sped it up, and made it you-tube acceptable.
I wanted feral bees if possible, but commercial hives are placed in the bogs near me between late May into mid July. I knew I had to populate the hives before the bog bees got interested. How to get feral bees became an obsession. After reading McCartney Taylor’s book on Swarm Traps and Bait Hives, I built 9 bait hives. Hung them mostly on private property. I want to thank Bernhard Zaunreiter (see Swarm Trapping 2012) for posting a photographic “how-to prepare bait hives” post on the biobee.com forum,” and answering my bait hive questions.
I finally was rewarded after placing two boxes on or near feral bee hive trees. On one of the weekly inspections, both had caught swarms. This bottom tree supplied Bee Beard.
The transfer of bees from bait hive to Bee Beard was quite an adventure, but the bees are settling in now and the itching is subsiding.
I want to express my appreciation to Phil Chandler for creating biobees.com forum. I’ve got so much to learn and this is a very friendly, positive and informative place to do that. Thanks to those stalwart friends who gave me encouragement during my dark days of no bees, when I started regretting not ordering package bees and despairing that I wouldn’t get ANY bees for another year. Mobeek, Bugscouter, KittyLabyrinth, newwoman, baz, and jaywoo kept me going.
This short video shows the bees entering through the hat. I left a little gap in the quilt box to make it easier to pull out. I think that’s where they are going. A few enter through the mouth entrance. I’m hoping when the comb gets built down that far, they will use the mouth entrance more.
I noticed the bamboo is shading the hive too much in the afternoon…the Warre Hive, on the south side of the bamboo works 1-2 hours longer, so I’m going to trim back the bamboo to get more sun in late afternoon. After all, that could spell the difference between making it, or not making it.
Bee-atrice Log Hive Steps into Prime Time
Grand Kids Log Hive gets bees…two swarms almost at same time.
Adventures in Natural Beekeeping 
Congratulations again in catching a swarm for Bee beard. I’m glad I could be of some help to you. I feel like a celebrity now that I get mentioned in the above article. 🙂
Yeah, I finally lucked out with two swarms caught and one swarm call. Next year I’ll know right where to hang the bait boxes. How are your home-built Warre’s doing? Seems to me I saw a photo from your hive about 8 or 9 days after getting bees and they had a bunch of comb built already…Have you ‘nadired’ a box yet?
Reblogged this on Romancing the Bee and commented:
So interesting!!
Wow, thanks for reblogging this. That’s a first for me.
Amazing carved log with the Slovenian Bee Hive Art inspiration you have created! I know absolutely nothing about beekeeping, however, I really enjoy reading about it. Thank you for sharing your experiences. 🙂
Thanks for the comment. I placed Bee Beard in a prominent place in the garden. Trouble is I can’t stop looking at it. When the sun is out and the bees are flying it’s hard for me to get any weeding done …my wife will testify to that.
I don’t think I would stop looking at it either. It is quite a feat in craftmanship, and you should be very proud of it. Enjoy! 😉
I’m proud of it but I can’t take complete credit for it. I told the Brian Vorwaller, the chainsaw artist where to put the mouth and to ‘surprise me.’ He came up with the carving and I’m very happy with it. His wife, Zada, videotaped it and it can be seen here… https://solarbeez.com/2012/02/11/the-making-of-a-log-beehive/
He came up with the idea to pivot the hat. That’s how I got the swarm from the bait box into the hive.
Well, your combined effort made an amazing hive. Good for you. 🙂
Hi Pat, I just posted some of your photos and video to my blog, awakeningtoheal.com, because I was so inspired by this wonderful hive. I would be sitting out there staring at it all day too. Oh yeah, I do that with my hive already.
The log hive is doing so well. I finally got some photos through the observation window yesterday. The comb (natural-built by the bees) has now reached to below the mouth entrance hole. There was a bee-sized hole that I plugged with tissue paper to prevent the bees from coming around the window. I checked it again a day or two after I plugged that hole and found shredded tissue paper at the bottom of the window area. I guess they didn’t like it. They don’t seem to mind me occasionally looking into their hive, so I guess I’ll leave it be. It’ll be interesting to see if they plug it up for winter. Yesterday they were bringing in bright orange pollen. Any idea what that is?
Wow 🙂 such a great art and fantastic blogging. Subscribed!
I’ve got a hollow log last year which i decided to turn into a log hive a few days ago. I hope to get feral bees move into it this year.
I’ve had such good luck with my log hive…it wintered over without getting fed, medicated, or miti-cided, so I decided to build another log hive…a sort of ‘girl friend’ for Bee Beard. Stay tuned.
https://solarbeez.com/2013/04/28/meet-bee-atrice-a-female-companion-to-bee-beard/
This log hive (and bee-atrice too) are SOOOO cool. I have never seen anything like them! Just amazing! Thanks so much for your comment and encouragement on my blog. I am still hoping for a swarm this Spring for my Perone hive! And I’m really hoping that when I remove the black plastic from my hive, the comb will be intact!!
The experts advise freezing the comb for at least 24 hours to kill any wax moth eggs. You wouldn’t want to tear out that beautiful comb but what about wheeling your hive on a hand truck into a walk-in freezer?
That’s a really beautiful one ! Thanks for sharing. The photo makes it a lot clearer than ours too. The husband is going to work on it to improve it though.
I’m working on another log hive. Much bigger, from a tree that had to be sacrificed. Wondering how I could possibly top the two carvings that I already have, I asked a visiting paper salesman if he had any ideas. “How about your grand kids,” he replies. Woo hoo! YES!!! It will be a truly one of a kind log hive.