Rock Cavities
The photo below depicts an exposed honey bee comb located on some rocks near a river in Jackson County, Iowa. This particular colony was discovered back in November 2021. According to Extension Entomology, it’s quite rare to come across an exposed nest of honey bees; In fact, there have only been 5 or 6 reported instances within the past 30 years.
In contrast to the hundreds of reports of baldfaced hornet nests and yellow jacket wasps, this is considerably low. As a species, honey bees build their wax comb in protected locations that can raise offspring and store honey. One bee species called Anthophora pueblo pokes vertical sandstone rock faces with tiny holes into trees.