Honey bees in a tree

I was climbing a big pin oak in a woods setting with two friends. One of the climbers was taking a route past a hollow at about 60 ft. where I've found a pair of raccoons sleeping. I told him about it but he went up on the other side of the leader and didn't have a chance to check it out. Later in the climb I went down to the hollow to take a look. From 15' above I could see there were no raccoons inside. I descended to the hollow and put my foot on the lower lip of the opening. I looked at my foot and realized I was standing with my toe on honeycomb and a substantial concentration of bees. For the moment they were going about their business and ignoring me. I withdrew my foot slowly and did a short swing clear of the leader, landed on a second leader and ascended gently about 10 ft. I waited quietly to see what would happen next. Activity increased around the hollow and I could see that scouts were flying circles 5 or 6 feet out from the hive. Good news is that was the end of it. From being around backyard honey bee hives I know that slow movement allows very close proximity to the hive without problems. Africanized honey bees are different, behaving more like yellow jackets. If it was yellow jackets I would have likely been stung multiple times, they have a very short fuse!
-moss

That sounds like a close call Moss.

I've seen raccoons sleeping in trees before but not bees, yet.

Bald faced hornets act similarly too. If you loose your cool and flap your arms while the hornets crawl over you, you're toast!

I once tried to out run yellow jackets I disturbed in a tree. They were faster than I was. I yelled down to my partner, "run!" He gaped up at me in a neanderthal pose and said "HUH" He found out what run meant when I brought the hive down with me. I looked like a bird trying to fly, I was flapping my arms so much.

My biggest nervy achievement was to wait out a bald faced hornet crawl after I disturbed a nest. I stood real still and watched them crawl all over me. I was in a magnolia tree with big fat leaves. I could barely see the hive hanging. These insects pack a real hard punch, but they are very gentle too, I've been told.

I had to remove a white faced hornets nest one time because it was hanging right in the middle of an access road we were using. Long story short I got bit 5 times in the head... while trying to jump into the back of a moving truck... while running up hill. AAAAAAGGGGHHHH! Standing still was not an option. They were mad as a, well, a hornet.
I have also come across a 'coon napping in a tree. Moved right along and let it be. No point in getting him all riled up. They're nasty.

treeman wrote:

My biggest nervy achievement was to wait out a bald faced hornet crawl after I disturbed a nest. I stood real still and watched them crawl all over me. I was in a magnolia tree with big fat leaves. I could barely see the hive hanging. These insects pack a real hard punch, but they are very gentle too, I've been told.

I had a much less threatening version of that climbing west coast woods. I was sitting at about 100ft. working on advancing the rope when I became covered with small ants. A dead conifer was leaning against the tree I was climbing. A column of ants was marching up the entire length of the dead leaner to access the live tree. The top of the leaner intersected the live tree right where I was hanging. Ants crawled on my head under my helmet, on my face, inside my shirt etc. They were biting me but were so small that the effect was insignificant. I could see different sized ants, the ordinary workers and the soldiers, bigger yet still very small. The soldiers were posturing on a limb in front of my eyes, raising their abdomens perhaps to look more intimidating. Interesting experience.
-moss