If you are interested in getting some honey from them on a regular basis you would have to put them in a man-made hive. But moving them would probably require that you cut down the tree. If you are not interested in the honey then you can leave them bee. There's a good chance that they throw off a swarm or 2 every spring and you could try to capture the swarm.

Thanks for the input, Randy41. I'm not interested in cutting down the tree and the bees are not causing any problems. If I knew more about bees I would be very interested in collecting a swarm...but I honestly think I would probably pee my pants if I encountered such a thing ;) I would love to have honey, though. Maybe I need to do some serious research to be prepared one day for that. Lori

You never saw the movie, "Fried Green Tomatoes" where the girl reaches into the tree and pulls out a perfectly cut and formed piece of delicious honeycomb without getting stung?

Has anyone ever seen this// My hummers have left and I haven't gotten around to taking the feeder down and I was so surprised to see the bees on the feeder. Haven't had bees around for several years. I moved my feeder to an area away from my walk...I know the feeder is just about out of liquid. Will the bees then leave. It is also getting colder each day.

Lori,
Not sure, but I think your zone it gets cold too and your honey bees will usually go up in the tree trunk to stay warm, this will make comb more exposed and you could cut some off on the bottom end, make sure you do it at the coldest day of your winter. I'm not sure if the bottom will have honey, usually they store honey further up in the hive.
Whatever you cut out on the bottom with honey should be OK for you to keep and bees will still have enough further up
to keep them fed throughout the winter.
NOTE:...you can not pull on the comb at all, otherwise it can get dislodged on top and the colony can end up in your hands, doing harm to you and killing the hive.
And yes, catching a swarm from a surviving hive would be a good thing for a beekeeper, this hive probably has good
breed's traits.
If you Google swarm lure, you can find allot on how to make a makeshift box and hang it up on a tree, but not too close to the hive, at least 10 to 20 yards away. A proper bee box with drawn comb, perhaps from a local bee keeper you can get and put up somewhere.

enjoy your honey bees

Konrad

Brushy Mountain sells a swarm trap that you place up in a tree. One of our club members caught quite a few swarms just this season using them. They look like a giant peat pot and last quite a few seasons

mulch simplier suggestion: leave the bees alone... they will overpopulate every 2-3 years and the new bees will be looking for a new home... you don't need to catch the swarm, just set up a bee hive comfortably close to the tree and a scout bee will tell the others. When they move in you can add additional "supers" (the boxes that hold frames for honey and bee production)and start "keeping bees". Meanwhile (since it could be awhile before their next swarm) put out one complete "super" with "brood frames" and wait. Check it every once in awhile to keep out moths, spiders and wasps. (if no bees are in there you can spray it with a hose to clean it - if there are bees coming and going they will handle everything)

Help: look online at Michael Bush's bee site and find the 'newbee section' - read up and get excited. There are lots of catalogs to choose from for already set up beehives and materials precut to build your own, my favorite is "Brushy Mountain" - its inexpensive and lots of fun.

Sidenote: Bees have the most complicated language second only to humans. They are incredibly intelligent and legally an endangered species. You'll love them.

The first year you have a hive you will want to leave them alone, they will need their honey for winter. The next year you will harvest 60 pounds from one hive!