Wondrous Bees

[worgeordie]

We have had this colony of bees living in a large upside down pot,

with a small hole in bottom which they enter and exit.

 

They have been living there for years, but not constantly , they live

there for say 8 months , then vanish, then in a few months they

return , like yesterday there was a huge swarm of them at the

pot, must have been a queen in the middle somewhere, anyway

they have settled in again.

 

I don't know how long bees live, but surely the ones that arrived

yesterday  cannot be the same ones that originally made a home 

there 10 + years ago,  any beekeepers know the answer ?

 

regards Worgeordie

 

 

[overherebc]

It seems that some bees in this part of the world do change location (migrate) at times. One article I read saying they do an altitude change and not just a location change related to seasons.

Seems worker bees live only weeks but the queen can live 5 or 6 years.

Edited March 6, 2022 by overherebc

[kokesaat]

We typically get 2 or 3 large hives (I believe Apis dorsata) way up in our santol trees (กระท้อน).  They typically show up in a wave (sometimes a noisy incoming wave). 

Right now we've got one very large hive in the santol tree, along with 2 much smaller hives going on near our flowering jasmine bush. I believe the bees are dwarf honey bees (Apil Florea).  

Last year, we cut down a large pine tree and soon after, tiny apidae bees started building underground nests with amber colored hollow columns extending up from the earth.

Each kind of honey has their own distinctive taste.  The apidae honey is pricey stuff......sweet and sour taste.

 

[Olmate]

13 minutes ago, kokesaat said:

We typically get 2 or 3 large hives (I believe Apis dorsata) way up in our santol trees (กระท้อน).  They typically show up in a wave (sometimes a noisy incoming wave). 

Right now we've got one very large hive in the santol tree, along with 2 much smaller hives going on near our flowering jasmine bush. I believe the bees are dwarf honey bees (Apil Florea).  

Last year, we cut down a large pine tree and soon after, tiny apidae bees started building underground nests with amber colored hollow columns extending up from the earth.

Each kind of honey has their own distinctive taste.  The apidae honey is pricey stuff......sweet and sour taste.

 

The wave is a 'swarm', 

[overherebc]

At one time we had 3 or 4 combs on the front door overhang. Not sure what 'species' of bee but they were very 'calm' bees and never reacted in any way to us going in and out past them. We never bothered them and they never bothered us.