Hive Tree Services

A second-hand truck and a wood-chipper were the whole of Hive Tree Services when Michael and Mecs started it in 2012, with not a single client on the books. Michael had spent the thirteen years before that working in his father's tree business, from 1998 to 2011, learning the trees and how to run a crew. Mecs came at it from a different direction, community mental health work and a science degree in the mind-body connection. The work grew on referrals, neighbours telling neighbours after we had been in their garden, and there are ten of us now: climbing arborists, ground crew, a production manager, a site supervisor and the office team who keep the whole thing moving.

When a tree has to go, our climbers take it down in sections, and the elevated work platform comes out for the ones better reached from a bucket than off a rope. Tree pruning and maintenance keeps the rest of them in order, and where a tree has a weak union or a limb we would rather not lose, tree cabling can hold it together instead of taking the whole thing out. The tidier end of the same work is hedging and tree shaping. Stumps go with our stump removal gear, the timber goes through the chipper, and the mulch can stay on your garden beds if you want it. We fit possum protection as well, and we handle the emergency tree work that follows a storm.

Before anything starts you get a written job report, and it runs to more than a price on a page. It sets out the work you have asked for, before photos and a site map of your property, what we found on inspection, the crew and equipment the job needs, the scope of works, a risk management outline, any permits required and our terms, with the pricing schedule attached separately. The photos are the part clients tell us they value, because you can see exactly which branches we are proposing to take off, what height the hedge will finish at and what shape the tree will have when we are done. If you need to square the work away with a partner, a tenant or the council, that report is what you send them. We keep a council permit resource hub going for the permit questions that come with trees in Melbourne, and we clean the site up after every job.

Jobs take us right across Melbourne, from Bayside and Caulfield through Fitzroy North and Mitcham, and out to Kallista in the Dandenongs. One thing worth saying plainly: if a tree has come down and something is at risk right now, ring the Victoria State Emergency Service on 132 500 first. We cannot always help after normal business hours, but you can count on us to respond to emergency tree work through daylight hours.

Give us a call on 1300 464 483, or send a text to 0488 884 225 if that suits you better, and we will come and look at the tree. You will have the report and the price in writing before anyone starts, and a clean site when we pack up. One hedge that has got away from you or a row of gums over the fence line, either way, get in touch and we will book you in.