How long does it take bees to build a beehive?
Image by madmiked
A 2 minute image taken from Oyster Bay of the Beehive cluster with Saturn. The shot was taken with my Konica camera and zoom lens with Kodak Elite Chrome 200 slide film. The lens was at 200mm focal length and the shutter at f/4.5. The slide was scanned and then processed in Photoshop. The color levels and curves were adjusted. There are some internal reflections, probably created when I scanned the slide, caused by Saturn.
Question by Pook: How long does it take bees to build a beehive?
We just found a huge beehive on our deck (over a foot long, sort of a cone shape). There’s at least a couple hundred bees out there. I’m wondering how fast they could have built it – I don’t even remember seeing it there a few days ago!
What do you think? Answer below!
4 Responses to How long does it take bees to build a beehive?
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The real question is: why do you have bees there in the first place? I keep hearing on the news about bees disappearing! Those ones are renegades!
ineedyourhelp
June 17, 2011 at 12:11 am
What you have is a “swarm”. The bees are looking for a good place to start an new hive. The Queen is in the middle of the swarm. Call a bee-keeper (look in the phone book). If the swarm is easily accessible, they will come and take them away.
Bees are great!! I have a couple of small volunteer hives in my yard. However, you DO NOT want to have a hive where you will be congregating regularly ( like your deck!!)
Good Luck!!
Cindy B
June 17, 2011 at 12:23 am
Bees are disappearing so don’t kill them! With that said, I think you may have a hornets nest. Is it an inverted cone that looks like its made of grey paper? If so, you have hornets and you can kill them or if no ones allergic leave them be. The reason I say this is they are predators of garden pests or pollinators, depending on the species. And they’re one of Gods fun little creatures to watch. If you have a swarm of bees, they will be a moving brown mass in an inverted cone and will leave soon unless they find a home in a hollow tree or a man made home. Did you know you can stick your hand into a bee swarm without getting stung? They only sting if they have a home to protect so you can slowly stick you hand in and out. The sight, smell, sound and feeling is unbelievable. RScott
RScott
June 17, 2011 at 12:38 am
I’m assuming you know the difference between a hive and a bunch of honeybees with no hive. Most of the answers above apply if they are just honeybees in a swarm but if it’s a hive (or nest) I don’t think you have honeybees at all. I think you have yellow jackets. They quietly go about their work in the spring and as the population grows the rate at which the nest grows accelerates. Usually in the spring you don’t notice them because you only have a few hundred and they as very nonaggressive at that time. However in the fall when the population is huge they become very aggressive and that’s when most people notice them. From your description I would say the hive is probably about a month old. If you know the difference between what a honeybee looks like and a yellow jacket you’ll want to get rid of the yellowjackets now–especially if you happen to be allergic to them. When they get aggressive later in the summer they will feel the vibrations in the wood from walking on the deck and come out ready for battle.
If I’m wrong and they are honeybees, then yea, call a beekeeper.
college kid
June 17, 2011 at 1:07 am