Porch Bees (a new batch)

These bees were once part of a bee tree on the local Air Force base. The tree had to come down. They wanted Mark to try to save the bees, and he got a few, but not the queen. The bulk of the colony was crushed when the tree came down. There wasn't time to do a trap out.

He rescued some of their own comb.

They've struggled. Mark has fed them a bunch, given them frames with eggs to make a new queen, to no avail. He's pondered what to do since they haven't appeared to have created a queen for themselves and it's late in the season to get one.

 
I just know we like having them around. I think that makes us weird.

Oh, yeah. We were weird *before* we had porch bees.

UPDATE: Mark combined a hive from a neighbor's garden with the porch bees. When he checked them 9/25, he saw a "big, fat queen, laying like crazy" which is great news.  They're getting a steady diet of sugar syrup to help them build up stores. My fingers are crossed.