A sago palm and bees

[CookieTree]

I've got a sago palm/cycad in my front yard and some bees have decided to make it as their new home. The hive which I think they are developing is pretty low to the ground. The pictures linked in this topic show a community of bees that have stayed group together on the same plant for at least 3-5 days now. Here are the pictures:

1.1

http://img9.imageshack.us/img9/8823/p1070415b.jpg

1.2

http://img233.imageshack.us/img233/4282/p1070442.jpg

1.3

http://img208.imageshack.us/img208/6430/p1070429.jpg

The bees are about 4 feet away from the sidewalk.

EDIT:
I just checked at about 6:30pm today - all the bees had left and all that remained was just the white wax as you see there and a little bit of the same right under. My guess was the bees were just resting there for migration.

[vintagejuls]

WOW! OMG!

I don't think I would of believed it had I not seen it. That is something to experience. Was the buzzing loud?

Thanks so much for sharing!

[tomf]

I have seen them do this before and then they all flew away.

[applestar]

I believe those bees are "swarming" -- congregating around a brand new queen to start a new colony. Most likely not making a nest on the palm. Usually after a day or two, they fly off together to (find? -- maybe they're sending out scouts right now...?) a likely nest-site.
I've no idea how to verify, but you want to be sure they're not the African bees -- they are said to be unpredictably (or actually predictably) aggressive, often responding to whirring noise like bicycles and lawn mowers, or regular thudding of joggers.

If they ARE honey bees, any local beekeeper would be HAPPY to come collect the swarm. They will also come and verify the type of bee, usually for free, though they won't take away non-honeybees. If you want to take up beekeeping, I've seen "kits" in catalogs and on-line, but you're probably better off taking a class or workshop first. (That's on one of my "things to do someday" lists )