We haven’t seen more than a handful of honeybees for years. 2 is a major sighting. Last year a local beekeeper put a hive on my boss’ farm, about 2-3 miles away as the bee flies, and we saw more than I’ve seen in forever, but still not many. I think 10 at one time was the most, and they were on the eleagnus. We have lots of people coming in and complaining about wood bees—bumbles that drill holes in any type of wood. i hate to kill any bees but they will destroy porches, siding, barns, etc if you don’t get rid of them.
Side note—wouldn’t wood bees be great if you could say—Hey, you! I need a hole right here, this deep!
The big black and yellow Bumbles Bees are what I have been seeing. And yes, they do make their homes in any kind of wood. I have shovel, hoe and rake handles that have these beautiful and perfect round holes in them produced by Bumble Bees. I had some 2x4’s stored in a overhead rack in my car port they put some beautiful round hole in them. They got evicted when I realized where the saw dust was coming from!