Bringing Home a Log Hive: Meet Queen Leaf and Her Royal Willow Hive

Mathias, an arborist, gave the College of the Melissae a call about a week ago: he had felled a tree....full of bees!

The tree had broken a big branch, exposing some comb, so we piled a bunch of sawdust against the wound and covered it with a tarp. In the picture below, Laura Bee is sharing some ideas around protecting the colony and lifting the 300 pound, 7 foot log.

Digging out the insulative layer around the broken trunk.

Heave...Ho! The team, using straps, teamwork and muscles, carefully lifts the log so that others can wrap the wound in burlap.

The burlap fit snugly and was sewn shut with stick-pins (pins made out of sticks!)

Of course, the bees had no problem finding an exit out of that ^^! Luckily we had a huge 100% egyptian cotton duvet cover- basically a big pillowcase! It covered the log perfectly and we set to strapping it snug above and below the opening to the Hive.

The Hive begins to look like a Holy Statue, shrouded and coccooned.

It is a real physical challenge to lift this and it must be done in small increments with specific team coordination...it is almost too heavy!

So we drive Her to the Garden Apiary.

2014 Interns Chris, Heath and Nathan: "Brood Boyz" Reunion!

Loving our Bee Peeps! Proud of the team!!!

Right Hand Bee-Man Tony Corsini!

This hole is where we will "plant" the willow... 2 feet deep and lined with gravel....

Of course we stopped several times during the whole thing to circle and ask for support from the Ancestors and give BIG prayers of gratitude to the Bees.

Which always makes everybody feel like this:

Now: Let's move out precious bundle....

Paige was the bee tender and guardian. She had her eye on the bee entrances like an emergancy room nurse... and like their sister.

Here we go! This is it!

Aaaaand...the camera ran out of batteries! Stay tuned for Part II!