“Try a cone-shaped bee hive, 3 feet long and 2 feet wide across its top,”
Piffle.
That ain’t nuthin’.
There’s a 19th century school house at the end of my lane and the entire back wall and part of the side wall was FULL of honey bees.
The comb was inside -all- of that space.
Every spring they’d swarm and part of them would take off with their new queen and the whole building was literally black with them.
It was an awesome sight to behold.
They never bothered anybody and once in a while, a couple would hitch a ride on me when I went to fetch the mail.
Then the guy who inherited the property came in and gassed them all.
It was horrible and unnecessary.
I miss them.
My dad keeps hives up on the mountain and his bees come down and hang around the clover and dandelions every summer and if I’m sitting out there, they’ll land on me and “spiff” themselves for a while before flying off.
I like bees.