Hey, I just discovered a wild hive living in a tree cavity about 30 feet from my ancient pear tree. (I'd estimate about 100
bees per minute going in and out of a cavity in a standing dead tree.) It's an out of the way spot and I plan to just steer well clear of them for the most part. I have no interest in active bee-keeping or messing with them; I like
honey but the land-owner has a terrible fear of all bees and if I started actively managing these little buggers, she'd probably get nervous and start muttering about exterminators. (Yeah, I know. We don't want that.)
My once concern is that the bees might be Africanized. Even if they are, I expect to just leave them alone, but I've got a lot of comfort level with regular bees that I don't have with Africanized ones. Knowing which these are would tell me more about how much space I need to safely give them. I do have a frequently-used path that goes within about 25 feet of the hive.
So, how do I tell? Do I need to capture a bee and inspect it? If they're Africanized, I don't want to start messing with bees anywhere near that hive, so how would I safely do that?
All suggestions gratefully accepted.