New (to us) Bee Tree

So we've got several bee trees that we know of on the ranch .... two huge dead logs down by the shooting shed pasture and one monster live tree near the pond that the bees live in.  Near as we can tell, they live there year round and just do their thing.  We're glad to have them, with the decline in the general population of bees, we think we're pretty lucky to have one much less three fairly substantial bee trees.

Regarding our bee population, I think we are holding our own. This summer we rather let the lawn "go to flower" and I spotted maybe a half dozen different types and sizes of bees, which in and of itself, I thought a very cool thing and it confirms we've got a variety of bees in the neighborhood.

Anyway back to my picture.  In the wind storms about a month ago, we lost two huge cottonwoods - as the second one fell it "rearranged" one of the trees across the creek - one of our standing dead cottonwoods.  Not a big deal, the standing dead tree was still standing and eventually - maybe some birds will have to relocate - totally manageable.  The tree was still standing pretty solid which to meant there wasn't immediate danger to the horses or resident birds or the other trees in the area.  No big deal - just keep an eye on it to make sure it doesn't become a danger - we're all good.  Then one night I was cutting through the creek and saw a huge brown patchy splotch on the dead tree .... what the heck?!!  Really?  What now?  See ppicture below.

The tree is tall enough and the splotch far enough up (maybe 20 - 30 feet) that even with my glasses it wasn't clear what it was, so I got out the camera .... I love my camera!

Bees .... holy cow! The big splotchy spot was bees coming out of the tree.

Sorry, I can't help myself ... Bees, it be bees coming out of that tree!

My apologies to anyone who pulled a muscle groaning as they read that line ....

Evidently this isn't just a bee tree, it is a huge gigantic eenormous whopping big bee tree.  It seems that when the cottonwood across the creek fell and rearranged the bee tree, it rearranged the bee's living quarters and they had to spill out on to the outside of the tree while they made repairs - at least that is my guess.  Over the last weeks the splotch of bees outside the tree has changed shape and color (I believe to be an indicator of the quantity of bees outside the tree) and slowly but surely reduced in size.  As I type, I have a clear view of the creek bee tree and the splotch is barely noticeable.  While they were in "overflow" / "renovation" mode, they didn't bother the horses or the other animals or the me (cutting weeds in the field around their tree or when I cut through the creek) - I have to think they were perhaps more concerned with getting their quarters in the tree restored to livable space.  The other note - the bees share their tree with birds, I now we've got flickers that live in that tree, although much closer to the bottom than where the bees live. 

In my opinion it was all very cool.... and at the same time, kind of freaky.  When you think about how many bees there are per square inch there to make up this mass of bees (good gravy - look at that picture, I'm guessing the clump of bees is at minimum an inch thick and the main clump maybe 3-4 feet long) .... and how many more are in the tree - yikes!  That's a lot of bees!