Towering Marshall tree comes down after 140 years

After 140 years of towering over Millstone Farms, providing rare pecans and a wealth of shade, a drought-stricken native pecan tree bid farewell this week, leaving a surprise for the Stuart Agnor family, who lives on the property.

Come to find out it had a beehive and a wood duck and 11 babies, said S.S. Brantley, president of Marshall Beekeepers Association, who was on the scene to take possession of the bees.

The mama (duck) took the babies and went that way, Brantley laughed, pointing at a red barn nestled in the rear of the property.

The wood ducks were found nesting above the bees in a hole.

Karin Bayne, member of the association, said the Marshall Beekeepers Association will extract the bees and put them in a hive that the association will manage to help keep the bees alive.

Its one colony with probably 20,000 bees, Brantley said of the discovery.

Were elated that we have been able to work with the Fason Tree Removal Service in order to save the bees, he said, thanking the company who cut the tree down without harming the bees.

Stuart Agnor, who owns the property with his wife Patty, said while he knew about the bees, he was tickled to know that a family of wood ducks were using the tree as a habitat.

Obviously, they were not in the same cavity of the tree, he said of the bees and the ducks, but close enough.

The wood ducks were nesting in a spot where lightning had struck the tree about 40 years ago.

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Towering Marshall tree comes down after 140 years