PROJECTS / „Artificial Tree Hollow”

„Artificial Tree Hollow” is my little and amateurish project. It is done in my spare time and from my private resources. It is about making boxes for bees and hanging them on the trees. I called them „sztuczna barć” in Polish, which translates into English as „artificial tree hollows” or rather „artificial tree hives”... Well they are all artificial, aren't they? But I called it like that to distinguish it from „log hives” or „real” tree hives made in living trees. This project has been active since spring 2016 when I – with the help of my 2 friends Łukasz and Marcin – put 5 boxes on the trees. Since that time I've made 5 boxes every year, and the three of us hanged them in the forest. It is a very little project. I would say, that it takes at least 50 or even maybe 100 boxes, tree hollows or log hives to make any difference, even the slight one. But I do it also for fun, and just for the bees. So even if it would not change anything in local bee population it is still not a waste of time for me. I would not dare to compare this little project to such as „Bartnicy Sudetów” which is about hanging 1000 (one thousand!) log hives in Kłodzka Valley in Lower Silesia, near Czech Republic border (https://bartnicy-sudetow.pl/en/main-page/) or some other projects of bringing bees to the forests. But these are mostly initiatives funded by the State which is a little bit richer then I am... My little example just shows what any beekeeper (or any person, even not keeping bees) can do if she or he just want to, and with very little resources.

I make wooden boxes from raw boards. They are about 50 – 80 liters in volume. It takes me about 2 working days to build 5 of them. I've never been counting the cost of them, but I would assume that it takes about 1,5 square meter of boards, so it is maybe about 10 Euro for one box. These two days and about 50 Euro per year is my personal „investment” in this Project. Then, for three past years for now, the three of us have met, and it took us about one day work to put the boxes in the forest (it takes about one or one and a half hour to hang one box). That time and some money to get to my place are the expanses of my friends. I would say that we spend that time productively in good company, and it is just a great fun. I do not regret any of that time or money, and I hope my friends think similar. Of course everything is agreed and coordinated with the local forest ranger: the fact of hanging boxes itself, the number of boxes and the place we put them (sometime even a specific tree, but usually just an area in the forest). We put the boxes were there is not supposed to bee tree cutting in following years – we usually want to hang them in places where the trees have been cut. In that case we just know that the trees that were left will be there for many years, and they will not be cut in following decades. In the first year there was some misunderstanding and one tree with the „artificial tree hollow” was cut during the winter and the box crushed on the ground. Fortunately it was empty, not with a bee colony!

The goal of „Artificial Tree Hollow” is to give some help for pollinaters – wild/feral living honey bees. It is also about supporting my local „private” selection for mite resistant bees. I hope that those boxes in time will be a good habitat for feral living bee colonies, and thanks to that some feral population will show up in my locality. Of course I am fully aware that those 14 boxes, that have been already hanged on the trees, would not change the local bee population. But firstly it is just a start. I see this is just the begining of this project, and I have lots of time for that! Secondly I add those boxes up with my bee colonies that are selected to be mite resistant (I have had about 50 bee colonies going into 2018/19 winter). Thirdly I intend to increase the numbers of the boxes and my „private” bee colonies every year. Forthly I want to put some of my already selected colonies to the boxes – I would assess their chances of survival to be bigger than random swarms (unfortunatelly I live in a place with quite little forest areas, and with big numbers of apiaries and treated colonies so most swarms are „refugees” form local treating apiaries). I really hope that in 10 – 15 years my work would start to bring some positve results. But even if that didn't happen I wouldn't worry too much. I see my actions as supporting feral bee population, I have some fun on the way, and I would say that I do something for the balance between „industrial beekeeping” and wild bees' needs. I would say that what I do is making counterpoise of my influence as beekeeper. If every beekeeper hanged at least one such box a year or put one of his hives somewhere and left it for Nature to do natural selection, than in a dozen or so years this feral population could really influence genetics kept in apiaries. I would say that this would be a real positive impact on the health of the bees and their resistance to mites and other diseases. Of course this would help beekeepers in the long run, too.

I have already built 5 boxes for present year (2019). I hope that in late April or early May they will be up in the trees. I hope to put more and more bee colonies to those boxes. Thanks to that the selection of bees should be faster then with waiting for natural settlement of the swarm there (it can take years untill a swarm comes to such a box). In 2017 I put 2 package bees made of my colonies in the boxes. In autumn 2018 they were still alive – I hope they will be alive in upcoming spring. Also, a swarm came to one of the box in last spring (2018). In couple of months I will know if they survived. Hopefully they did – keep Your fingers crossed with me!

January 2019

SUPPLEMENT – MAY 2019

Again, fourth year in a row, thanks to the help of my friends from „Bee Brotherhood”, I managed to accomplish another edition of „Artificial tree hollow” Project. We have hanged another five boxes for the bees in the forest. One of them was hanged with an artificial swarm of bees (artificial swarm fits artificial tree hollow perfectly!). If You wish to know some more, You can watch a film on our Youtube channel, that we have created during and after hanging of the boxes [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=njnDZniB6dA]. It is partially in Polish and partially in English but with translation in subtitles. We welcome You to watch it!

Bartłomiej Maleta