A question about bees

cakewalk · Joined: 03 Jan 2003 Posts: 512

Was out hiking today on a very steep slope, I wanted to check out a cliff like structure near the top of hedgepath hill... Came within about 30 yards of a gigantic bee hive. It's an unusual looking hive, like this:

beehive

This is not the one I saw, Mine is huge maybe 3 feet high inside a good sized hole in the rocks.

Do Africanized bees built structures like this? I want to go back up there and get some pictures, but if they see me as a threat and swarm, I would not be able to get away as the slope is very steep and slippery.

Any thoughts?

azhiker96 · Joined: 05 Jan 2003 Posts: 1419

Africanized and European honeybees both build similar structures. Use caution when around any beehive in this state. It takes a microscope or DNA analysis to tell the difference.
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Daryl · Posted: 7/12/2007, 6:53 am Post subject:

I had talked to a bee guy in AZ once and he said over 99% of the bees in AZ are Africanized, so it's a pretty safe assumption they are.
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GTG · Posted: 7/12/2007, 9:52 am Post subject:

Africanized bees will defend their home but will not attack if they ae in the hom searching mode "swarming on the move". Hives like the one in your picture are not that unusual. They will typically hive up in a very protected, hidden area in urban environments but in non-urban environments where they aren't receiving regular intruder traffic, they will build a hive in a semi-protected area such as you show here. I've seen this type of hive in Haunted Canyon before.

GTG
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Suz · Joined: 27 Nov 2005 Posts: 3186

cakewalk · Joined: 03 Jan 2003 Posts: 512

Thanks for the feedback, I think I will leave it alone, and find somewhere else to explore.
I've not seen a hive like that before and thought it was pretty cool, but don't want to end up on the 5 o'clock news after the bees and buzzards are done with me.

kurthzone · Posted: 7/12/2007, 3:53 pm Post subject:

Here's a close-up of a hive active with killer bees

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beckett · Joined: 14 Feb 2005 Posts: 1066

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Hikngrl · Posted: 7/12/2007, 4:51 pm Post subject:

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YH · Posted: 7/12/2007, 9:48 pm Post subject:

Is that Hooli celebrating his 20th?!

IGO · Joined: 08 Feb 2005 Posts: 4144 Location: Las Vegas