I found this nest in Victoria Park - Bath UK in a young oak tree. These bees were 5m up in a horizonatal limb of not more that 50 cm diameter. The entrance was a small knot hole.

I had been monitoring the bees in the limb of this tree for three years (three times a year). I went back in spring 2019 to check if they had survived the winter but I found the exit hole had been filled with expanding foam and small hole had been drill into the limb, I assume to administer poison. I felt terrible.

The park authorities knew nothing of this.

It amazes me how irrational fear of nature can lead us to such heartless actions. Honey bees are native to the UK since the ice age - they give so much. These bees were too high up to bother anybody on the ground. They were free-living in a tree, as such they would consume a fraction of the nectar resources of a managed hive. As they were so isolated and unmanaged they would be very little disease risk to managed hives.

It was this nest that set me on the journey to producing this site. I am so sorry bees for this and the harm we do - I have not forgotten you.