What's the Buzz?
In around November last year, we noticed a lot of activity around a Valley Oak tree. As there were a lot of leaves on the tree at that time, and we didn't feel it was safe to get too close, we assumed that it was a wasp nest. In late January, when the tree was bare, we got a closer look and discovered that it was actually a Honey Bee hive!
As it was well away from public trails, we left it alone, but today, we discovered that it has been abandoned, so I was able to get a better look at the hive. We typically find Honey Bees in cavities on trees, or even in the reclaimed water boxes, so it is unusual for us to get a close look at the structure.
The honeycomb looks to be empty, there are no caps on the cells and the wax feels dry to touch, not sticky as you might expect if honey was present.
We can't tell for sure why the hive has been abandoned, but we are hoping that the bees have just swarmed because they didn't feel secure in that location. There is also a possibility that the colony could have been affected by disease.
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