Not killer bees...honey bees do this a lot from what James tell us...James is a beekeeper we found when a tree next to our was cut down and found to be full of bees. Honey bees only want to do one thing...be left in peace to manufacture honey to feed their hive. The sad thing is this is mine and Larry's fault. We had removed some frames that had hive beetles in them along with a frame of honey...it was left uncovered and the hive next to the weaker hive found it and that got them started. Then Larry removed from beetles from a couple of the frames returned to the hive which meant honey dripped down onto the floor of the hive and that attracted the neighboring bees, too. We didn't know this of course or we would not have done it...we're still learning. Makes me heartsick knowing this. But, leading into fall weaker hives will get attacked for their honey by other bees so it's just how nature works. We just helped it along and didn't know it.
We're going to go into the hive when Larry's home this weekend and clean up the hive...we're certain the queen was killed and the hive is so weak now (decreased numbers) that there's no way they'll survive the winter months.
Yesterday while I was filming the bees a pretty young bee landed on my glove and allowed me to watch her prune herself...who would have known that these tiny little creatures would captivate me in such a way that I would cry watching them do what nature geared them to do. A good friend of mine said it yesterday....'nature is beautiful and sad.' Thanks for letting me get this off my chest, ya'll.