. Here is a link that might be useful: Shrubs Forum

***, I saw that he had gotten off the tractor and was motioning at something in the fencerow. As I pulled up I saw a dark blob in a bush and somehow I just knew it had to be more bees. Now he was finally excited. He'd never seen a swarm before and I still tried telling him that this little pile of several hundred bees was nothing at all like the previous *** Cool! We had a swarm just hanging--about the size of a basketball--in an evergreen in the front yard of a farmhouse in Central Iowa. It was fascinating and slightly nauseating, at the same time...if you catch my drift. I had two small children and I was afraid they'd get out of the house and head toward the noise. I believe bees "swarm" either when they find their hive uninhabitable (for whatever reason) or because, as you said, they have an extra Queen and need to separating the fighting aristocracy. :-)

It's the other way around, honey bees are running off our native bees by pest & disease,..just heard this on the radio the other day. European honey bees are a fairly new introduced species to north America in geological terms, we now find out that it can be detrimental to native bees. CharlieBoring is trying hard and should be congratulated for hes effort in saving bees. Unfortunalty, our human interference, mostly by overpopulation and greed, paving over gazillions of square meter every day and kill all weed and dandelion for a "green" lawn. Also, HUGE farmers with monoculture are contributing big time for loss of all kinds of insects etc. We NEED to establish land in a natural state where many native bees, including bumbles can have their nest in the ground, trees can grow freely without cutting down, this will help nature allot. Land need to be set aside with no or minimal traffic access. Here a leaf cutter bee cleaning house on a old rotten tree. If pictures are not showing, please check back in a couple of weeks, sometimes I get penalties by overuse of bandwidth in photobucket, it will reset in a couple of weeks. It will also help to plant all kinds of flowers, I'm also focusing allot on flowering shrubs & trees which flower at different stages in the season. Leaf-cutter bee on top with honey bee, still have a good population of many native bees here, honey bees are not needed for my hobby orchard.

Honey bees will cover every single flower on holly, making it seem alive with the hard working insects. You can hear them before you see them. YJs aren't so noisy. You should be able to easily tell a honey bee from a yellow jacket by the lack of very bright yellow and black on the bee body and that fact that bees are fuzzier. Both of these insects and many more are nectar and pollen feeders and will be found on holly, which is very attractive to all manner of pollinators, but only honeybees gather and collect nectar and pollen in order to bring back to their hives, for storage and the feeding of larvae. The relationship between bees and hollies is legendary. I would certainly hope that they are allowed to continue their work unmolested. No need to be afraid. Yes, they mind their own business, lol!