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I used to keep bees here in VT. They are an amazingly fascinating and complex organism and I still miss them. Long story on why I stopped. Anyhow.
You are right about the numbers in a hive. Do they only have that one comb shown in your picture?
They likely belonged to another colony that swarmed and they decided to stay in your tree. When they do swarm, the queen goes with them, because they have run out of space wherever they were, so unless they were just 'passing through,' they would build comb and begin the process of creating their new home. (They do leave behind queen cells so that another queen will be present in the hive they leave). They are amazing in how they actually 'decide' on what place to settle in - Dr Thomas Seeley from Cornell University wrote a book called Honeybee Democracy, about how they make the decision about where to go. This process alone is so 'intelligent' that if you were like me, you will forever 'bee' enamored of our short-lived friends.
Unless they cause trouble, fencing the area off is a good idea. They won't really bother anyone. Sit back some sunny summer morning with your binocs and watch them come and go. If they get too big for that space in your tree, they will eventually swarm again (part of the reproductive process of honeybees) and the process begins again. If they become troublesome, you can contact a local bee club or association who might have someone come out and capture them and take them away.
Last edited by Riley.; 03-30-2023 at 05:53 AM..
Reason: typos
Living in an urban biological desert is a problem for those of us who want to help Mother Nature...It doesn't do much good to plant a milkweed on a balcony in a Manhattan condo --
why would a Monarch fly over many miles of concrete just to find your plant?
As you mention-- a hive will last a couple decades, rhen collapse. When many hives just happen to hit that point simultaneously, we get Bee CCD- the perfect storm just by coincidence-- the mathematical phenomenon of an insect "break-out," but in reverse. ...It's not the insecticides.
To me, the evolution of the behavior of the social insects is one of the most amazing things (among so many) in Nature....Even more amazing than the dance honey bees do to communicate to their comrades the location of good nectar is the way that someone figured the dance out...He had no Rosetta Stone to make it easy. https://content.ces.ncsu.edu/honey-bee-dance-language
BTW- very clevr of you to fence the location off. Good wrok!.
Honey bees are truly some of the most fascinating creatures in nature. That little stinging insect......
The waggle dance is what I think you are referring to...and there is a formula the way they point their bodies....it tells the other bees where to go for nectar....and relates to the position of the sun and the hive they live in. They do the same thing when they are looking for another place to 'live,' like the OPs wild hive. They even have scout agents that go out looking for the new home. It's genius.
I have not kept up much with what's happening with the bees currently. Colony collapse disorder and varroa mites are their nemesis of the honeybee.
For spring, if you have dandelions.....leave some for them. It's one of their first nectar sources.
Those who study birds tell us that different geopgraphic populations of a given species have different "dialects" of bird calls-- I wonder if that's been studied in regards the bee dance?
Living in an urban biological desert is a problem for those of us who want to help Mother Nature...It doesn't do much good to plant a milkweed on a balcony in a Manhattan condo --
why would a Monarch fly over many miles of concrete just to find your plant?
As you mention-- a hive will last a couple decades, rhen collapse. When many hives just happen to hit that point simultaneously, we get Bee CCD- the perfect storm just by coincidence-- the mathematical phenomenon of an insect "break-out," but in reverse. ...It's not the insecticides.
To me, the evolution of the behavior of the social insects is one of the most amazing things (among so many) in Nature....Even more amazing than the dance honey bees do to communicate to their comrades the location of good nectar is the way that someone figured the dance out...He had no Rosetta Stone to make it easy. https://content.ces.ncsu.edu/honey-bee-dance-language
BTW- very clevr of you to fence the location off. Good wrok!.
I might get a sign too. So it doesn't look weird a fence around a tree no apparent reason. I did not notice the bees at first myself. but when the sun is on the area you can totally see them.
I might get a sign too. So it doesn't look weird a fence around a tree no apparent reason. I did not notice the bees at first myself. but when the sun is on the area you can totally see them.
You're lucky to have the honeybees. I haven't seen one in years. They've disappeared from so many places, which of course is seriously bad for all of us. Even when clover out on the lawn here, I haven't seen any since I moved here, to the rural mountains.
We had them in the city when I was growing up.
We have bumblebees here, but no honeybees. I wish I knew how to attract them, but with the maintenance crew spraying the "weeds" every spring I don't know that it would be a good idea to try to get them to come here. I don't know why the maintenance crew spray. The "weeds" are mostly really wildflowers.
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