You may have noticed, on your treks up the Overlook Trail, that we have some fuzzy friends living in the base of a multi-trunk tree on the left just beyond the main trail/Rattlesnake Cutoff Trail junction.  These European honey bees, also known as Western honey bees (Apis mellifera), are the most common kind of honey bee and are a generally docile sort with a placid temperament, only stinging when threatened.

Like all honey bees, European honey bees are extremely social, creating colonies of up to tens of thousands of bees, sometimes as high as 40,000 to 80,000.  A hollow tree is an ideal habitat.  The bees build intricate wax structures within to house food and their cooperatively raised brood.  Colonial activities are organized via complex communication between individuals, untilizing both pheromones and the waggle dance!

So, enjoy the buzz as you go by and leave them bee.  Considering that bees worldwide are seriously threatened by pests, diseases and pesticides, we count ourselves lucky to host these little friends.

Read more at iNaturalist.