ON THE ROAD AGAIN (or a feral hive) by beekeeper Fred

I'm almost caught up with all my beekeeping tasks.  All but 3 of my feeders have been removed and stored for the winter.  The last two items are to assess the strength of all hives early next week and in late October to wrap a small number of hives.  Although my past data shows wrapping does not improve hive survivability I figure I might as well use the hive wraps I do have instead of letting the mice chew on them.

At any rate I am now taking my dogs for two walks per day.  Good for both them and me.  On my walk today I spied a nice big hickory tree about 30 feet back from the edge of the woods.  Always on the lookout for hickory nuts I worked my way under the tree.  While bending over to pick up a nut I heard a familiar sound over my head; the buzzing of bees.  About 8 feet up the tree I could see an entrance to a feral bee colony.  Was this hive from one of my hives that swarmed last spring; who knows!

I retrieved my camera and took this picture a little later.  Most of the bees were gone, but there was still a small number coming and going.  If you look closely there are 2 bees on the lower portion of the entrance.  To you beekeepers that like to swarm trap in the spring the entrance hole was about 2 inches in diameter and 8 feet up where a branch had broken off sometime in the past.   I have no idea how big the internal cavity is inside the tree.  The tree is about 18 inches diameter at the height of the entrance.  This entrance would be in the shade all day long anytime there were leaves on the tree.

I will add this feral hive location to my winter monitoring list.  I am curious if this feral hive will make it through the winter.