Something I've never seen before

[pdqdl]

A business associate came by my office the other day, wondering if I could clear out some underbrush. It was only a couple of blocks away, so for $75, me and the Bobcat headed out with our mower deck for a quick 1/2 hour profit.

Shortly after starting, I saw a familiar sight to all people with "brush hog" experience: bees boiling up out of the ground, mad as hell at the destruction of their home. Since my Bobcat has an enclosed cab, I had the good sense to quickly close the sliding windows and keep working. Cool. I've never had protection from the bees before.

Here is the strange part: These were HONEY BEES! Nesting in the ground!

I have stirred up countless nests of bumblebees and yellow jackets (those nasty little yellow bees, not the wasps of similar color), but I have never seen bees in anything but a tree or wooden structure.

They eventually poured out in a thick enough pile, and were doing classic honey bee maneuvers, like hanging in piles onto each other. Incidentally, this was NOT a "swarm" of bees. They were coming out of the ground by a corner post of a yard.

Has anyone else ever seen honey bees nest in the ground?

 

[John Paul Sanborn]

I've seen them in hollow stumps that would equate to ground dwelling. I think they just need a cavity big enough for the colony to hive up in.

 

[ASD]

i've seen them in hollow stumps that would equate to ground dwelling. I think they just need a cavity big enough for the colony to hive up in.

+1

 

[Ed*L]

Very strange. While I don't know much about Honey Bees, I thought one of the key elements in a hive was a certain ammount of ventalation so the honey wouldn't rot/spoil. An underground hive wouldn't seem to provide this.

Ed

 

[TDunk]

Don't quote me on this or anything, but i think honey is one of those foods that doesn't really go bad. Something about you can just heat it up and it's as good as new. But like i said, don't hold me to that.

 

[TreeClimber57]

While I don't have any now, I did have just under 40 colonies of honey bees around 15 years ago. I have never heard of any of the honey bee family building anything underground, typically the colony would grow too large for an underground habitat. Furthermore, as mentioned in another post, they like/need air ventilation and like to have heat (warm sun on the hive).

I will pop a note off to a University that has a large area in agriculture and see if they can tell us anything.

As for honey going bad, yes it can go sour, and gets rather stinky.. especially if the water content in the honey is too high.