Fun share!

[khall]

My husband found what is called an open bee hive in a tree on our farm. Apparently quite rare. Huge hive and lucky it did not end up in the eaves of mom’s house. A bee keeper is going to bring a swarm trap out to see if the hive will move. We are going to track it in pictures

So cool!

https://www.facebook.com/10000086155357 ... 87451/?d=n

Go to the comments there is a close up of it. Wow!

[zevida]

That’s so cool! That’s close up pic is incredible. Keep us posted on how it goes!

[texsuze]

Amazing! What will happen to the honeycomb? Will some of the bees remain on that hive? Bees are so cool. A couple years ago I found a hive within a massive live oak tree on our ranch. The 'entrance hole' was just a hole in the tree, about 12' up on the trunk and about 3" in diameter. Every year I'll see one or two swarms fly over. Lots of feral bees, native bees and bumblebees here.

[khall]

Unless the honeycomb falls off in the heat they should stay there. The bee keepers are anticipating that the hive will split and swarm which is why they are bringing over a trap.

It’s a large hive with many bees on it. So interesting to see how nature works. My husband had seen a swarm in the area last year. We are thinking that this is the result of that swarm

[blob]

so cool to see! hope the relocation is successful!

[Imperini]

Wow that is wild! Thanks for sharing!

[demi]

Really neat! I googled it and saw some others. Yours is by far the most interesting. Like a work of art!

[hoopoe]

nature never fails to satisfy with its wonders. Bees are so precious, so very threatened

[KathyK]

The close up is amazing. I've never seen an open hive before. So cool!

[Chisamba]

Honey bees are a domesticated invasive species that are neither precious or threatened. They are in fact the largest reason why the native species of bees, which are both precious and threatened, are almost extinct.

Honey bee farmers drive their millions of bees to cropland to pollinate almonds etc. Then they bring them. Home where they compete with natural bees in limited habitats basically muscling them out so we can eat honey.

People think they are being so kind to the earth eating honey and being vegan. When a cow or sheep or horse grazes a fiekd, all the native bees Co exist with them. All the native blossoms dot the fields. When a field is plowed for planting it kills everything. Every damn thing. Rodents, cocoons, native hives. Then if it happens to need pollenation, in come the domestic farmed hives by the thousand to cope with the short growing season.

Do not believe me. Do your own research.

[khall]

Chisamba I’m not a honey bee farmer though there are a couple within 5 miles of our farm. We had nothing to do with this hive’s appearance. From what I understand an open hive like this is very rare especially one this big.

As for an introduced species I did not know. They’ve been here since the 1700’s it seems. It’s very difficult to not have introduced species when you have intercontinental travel.

We are a good sized farm located in the middle of agricultural land as well as woodland. I see bumble bees often out here.

I just wanted to share a unique hive that has shown up on our property. I’m interested is seeing what happens to it in the coming months

[Chisamba]

Khall, the comment was aimed at dispelling the notion that honey bees are threatened. Not you and your interesting hive.

I am not particularly fond of bees but we do need be farmers to help pollinate the large crops. I just dislike social media misinformation and try to introduce factual information when misinformation rears its head.

When I was a teen an aggressive swarm engulfed our home, killed all but one of our puppies and one of our horses. None of which were doing anything to disturb the hive.

Your picture is fascinating. But I personally would have the hive moved away from my animals

[StraightForward]

Honey bees aren't threatened in the sense of being federally listed under threat of extinction. BUT there is a plethora of problems that lead to hive collapse, and as you say, many crops are dependent upon the pollination services, so it is a serious problem for our food supply. Native pollinators are not going to do the job in our big artificial monoculture type agriculture. The bees being moved around so much does make for a real cesspool of disease transfer that is likely to be infecting native bees all over the country. Honey sales aren't what keep big bee keepers in business, the pollination services, particularly for almond orchards, is.

[khall]

Chisamba the hive is too high up to get to and not in a very accessible area.

[khall]

The bee hive split yesterday and swarmed. The open hive is still there with plenty of bees left

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid ... 590&type=3

I’ve posted updated photo from yesterday in the comments. Those bees were loud!