This was on old duck or owl box that my sister, Joanne, gave me many years ago. We decided to put it up for the squirrels.
When we got back from our NY trip we were surprised to find a swarm of Honey Bees had moved in.
Each time I look at it the face changes….
Mutton Chops?
Most of these are taken in the morning when all the bees are home. It’s about 8 am and the sun hasn’t hit the hive yet.
and it changes every few minutes….
I really like that little chain of bees in the picture above but a few minutes later it had changed to this….
Not quite so many bees now ….the sun is out and they are out foraging. You can see there is a hole in the front corner. The main entrance is a hole about 4” in diameter… you can just make it out above the block of wood on the front.
This video shows a little of the action at the box. It has 3 times of day….early morning, mid day and afternoon.
It’s an old box and 3 of the corners have rotted out, but the bees don’t seem to mind. Our winters here are not like up North. We do get down into the 30’s at times and have frost but normally it is at least 60 in the afternoon.
They chose this spot for a home and I love watching them, but Jim has to “suit up” to mow near them. They haven’t bothered him all summer and the last 2 times he mowed….. but there was one time when they did. Luckily he had just suited up to mow in front of the other hives. So now we don’t dare take a chance.
We would put them in a hive if we knew how to get it down. They are about 15’ in the air. We have a friend who would love to have them but, so far, we haven't figured out how to do it without ticking off a big bunch of bees. That box has to be very heavy. I doubt one of us could carry it down a big step ladder without dropping it …..and that would really make for some mad bees. Looks like a job for professionals…someone who has done this before.
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