Spent all day getting stuck into ringing up the 5 tons of wood I delivered the other day.

Started cutting a 26″ diameter trunk and found it to be quite easy going, when the ring came off I found this!

complete with tenants and honey in the comb.

Now I feel guilty.

I’ve screwed a piece of wood over the open end to give them some protection and am planning on removing this section of trunk and putting it out of the way so they can hopefully go about their business.

Unless anyone with some bee knowledge can suggest something better.

Holy shit!

Contact a local beekeeper. They will be able to transfer them to a hive.
A nucleus (Queen and worker bees) is worth a few bob.
If you fancy a bt of DIY.
Kit List, new hive, smoker, PPE, water spray.
Method.
Choose a nice sunny day.
Smoke the bees.
Spray with a light mist of water. (They will all cling together)
Knock the bees into the open hive, or break off the large bits of comb, get as many in the new hive as you can, hopefully the queen will go in with the bulk of the bees The rest will follow her.

Can I not just leave them in the trunk?

eek! IANAE but i suspect they will survive fine, even if they have to move.

You could, but getting any honey out of it will be tricky, unless you are a bear..
Opening needs to be facing south (I think)
It looks like they were quite happy there. it is possible they will rear a new queen if they
a, run out of space
b, feel threatened
If a new queen is reared, one will stay and one will fly off with half the worker bees.

Not fussed about the honey really, just don’t want them to end up dead! I do have a bee keeper a couple of miles away, so there’s that option if needed.

The bee keeper might be very happy. Impressive find – is happy