All
We were tearing off a shake roof and yesterday we had alot of bee activity in on area. Swarming.
Today in the cool of the morning when there wasn’t much activity we decided to open it up and see what it looked like inside the soffit.
In the picture you will see a very large hive.
They didn’t look like honey bees. They were thinner. They were not aggressive at all.
Rich
Replies
Must be Cake Bees!
Everything will be okay in the end. If it's not okay, it's not the end.
Peter
I have never heard of them.
But from the look of the hive I can understand why.
Rich
Well, to be honest, I've never heard of them either...is your BS meter plugged in?
One look at the hive though, and I just had to...
Everything will be okay in the end. If it's not okay, it's not the end.
They are certainly not honey bees. Likely not bees at all, but something like paper wasps. The interesting thing is that you say they were not aggressive. How cold was it when you opened things up?
Could be in the yellow jacket family. The nest structure reminds me of the aireal nest of paper wasp (commonly called tree hornets around here).
I found this site: [PDF]
Yellowjackets and Paper Wasps Yellowjackets and Paper Wasps
File Format: PDF/Adobe Acrobat - View as HTMLYellowjackets and Paper Wasps. Peter J. Landolt and Arthur L. Antonelli. Paper wasp queen, Polistes aurifer (= fuscatus aurifer), tending. aerial nest.
which shows the structure of yellow jacket nest, and mentions the variety that likes to build inside structures.
Those are thin soffit-originating bees ... or little SOBees for short - ;o)
Jeff
Look like this? -
View Image
Paper wasps
Edited 9/18/2008 2:01 am ET by Jeff_Clarke
Bay -bees?.....
Sorry, it's late here....
"If 'tis to be,'twil be done by me."