Oh, Bother!

We've been waiting for a couple months now for the big tree in or back yard to be removed. Its a huge tree and apparently its famous in the Ponca City area. Generations of kids have been climbing it for at least 60 years. Our neighbor's son is retiring this year and he climbed it as a boy. The man cutting it down was even familiar with it. Its a grand old maple tree. But it is old, and we noticed it was getting hollow around the middle and we'd prefer that it didn't fall on top of our house in this strong Oklahoma wind. So, it has to go.
Our tree cutter came out on Tuesday. He provided lots of entertainment as he roped, chainsawed, forklifted and drove his truck into our back yard. And then he stopped. He found a bee hive. Not too happy about that. Well, he must have decided to chop off one last branch well below the hive to finish up the afternoon. However, to his surprise, there were bees and honeycomb inside that branch too! Apparently, we had a monster hive in our backyard this whole time and we had no idea. And... its full of honey.
The branch the tree cutter felled lay right where it fell. Brian began having ideas about honey. First he took a little from the bees to try a small smackerel and found it to be - delicious. Next he began plotting his theft from the bees. A friend of his keeps bees and so he invited him over to take a look. Well a look turned into a honey stealing expedition. Next there was a fire and smoke, and then Brian's friend removed a serious amount of honeycomb from the fallen branch using only a pair of garden gloves. No stings, but it sure was entertaining.
That night Brian researched honey making on the internet and by the end of the evening, he had strained out about a cup of delicious honey. Way to go honey!




If you open this picture up and magnify it a bit, you can see the place where the limb was cut off and the honeycomb remaining inside. Above it there is the small knot where the honey bees were first sighted.