They just appeared a few weeks ago. The hive is in between some landscaping wood and you can't see it, but they come and go all day. My wife is afraid of them, so I stood in front of the opening and they just flew past me going about their biz.
Far too many people fear the mere presence of bees, and it's all quite unnecessary. Bees are peaceful and largely ignore humans. Bees buzz around in their singularly-minded search for pollen, and bypass humans on a wholesale basis. It's only when people start flailing about, slapping at and swatting at the bees, screaming their heads off and running around in fearful circles that the bees themselves become startled, assuming that they are under attack, and react defensively.
Of course, the first, and perhaps most stringent rebuttal to what I've written here is that some people are allergic to bees, or more accurately, to bee stings, which can be deadly in some cases. They counter that their fear is appropriate in relation to the danger they face, and therefore justifies lashing out at bees before the bees can even begin to threaten them. This is also incorrect. Bees do not seek out people who are allergic to stings and single them out as targets. The first action that appears as a threat to the bee is what sets the bee off. If a person calmly walks away from the bee or bees without jabbing at the air and/or trying to shoo or kill the bee(s), there is a distinct possibility that the entire incident will end uneventfully. Even is a bee is trapped inside of a vehicle or room or building, a calm reaction toward resolving the issue is more likely to be the result rather than a negative one.
Many people misunderstand bees, that's all there is to it.
Hive collapse is a very serious situation. Bees pollinate not only flowers, but fruits and vegetables. If the bees die off, we would not be able to produce enough food to feed our country.
Slartibartfast 