You know, we have a friend that said the same thing to us, he has bees in the eaves of the house, been there 'forever'. I doubted that, but, turns out our neighbors across the street today, are the former owners of that house, and they agree, the bees were there as long as they owned the house. So, we had confirmation of bees in that house for 20+ years. Very interesting, we were going to see about getting stock out of that hive. But, it was to late in the year to start a new hive, so we just started watching.
In november, on a nice day when our bees were flying, we stopped by and checked. Sure enough, bees were coming and going from the hole in the side of the house. Great. Come january, we had a nice day, and again stopped to check. Bees in hives beside our house were flying, and, lots of housecleaning, lots of dead bees on the ground in front of the hive. Over to the survivors in the house, not a bee coming or going, and not a single dead bee on the ground. Oh well, it's in the shade, maybe it's to cold for them. Late february, another day like that, bees flying like crazy from the hives beside our house, so stop by and check. No sign of life at the 'survivor' colony. Late march rolls around, and our bees are booming, all the hives beside the house have orientation going, it's a beautiful sunny day, bees are coming and going like crazy. Stop by the survivor colony, no sign of life, not a single bee coming or going. Hmmmmm.
Wind the clock forward, mid may (just about the start of swarm season here), and we find out, the survivor colony has 'woke up'. Sure enough, bees coming and going like crazy.
Wind the clock forward a couple more months, and we discover quite by accident, 5 houses up the road, is a fella that keeps bees, 5 hives hidden in the back yard, completely out of sight, they have been there 'forever'. Those bees get pollen patties and feed early, so they will be built up for the early flows.
These dots all line up in a strait line, easy to connect.