JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – To bee or not to bee, that is the question facing an Arlington man, who must decide what to do with a giant beehive hanging over his house.
Beekeepers said the hive attached to a tree branch hanging over Tim Moore's house probably has more than 10,000 bees in it.
"My wife actually made the comment, she said, 'You know, it's shaped in a heart. Isn't that sweet?'" Moore said.
Moore and his wife are keeping a sense of humor about their discovery but said they are facing a serious situation about what do with the hive.
Moore said he hasn't been tending to his yard as much as he used to because of an injury, but he noticed some signs that something was different.
"It started with a lot of bees," Moore said.
There were way more than usual.
"And then pieces, here and there, of actual -- the nest -- of honeycomb," Moore said. "I would actually find it on the ground."
Then Moore looked up.
"That's the strangest looking squirrel nest I've ever seen," he said. "And I went and got the binoculars, and the whole outside was actually moving, because it's just coated in bees."
The Moores didn't know a lot about bees, and neither did we before Friday, so News4Jax invited beekeeper Marilyn Young out for a look.
"What you have there is a hive of Italian honey bees," Young said.
Young is actually a little envious of Moore's upstairs neighbors. In fact, she said this is the biggest hive she's ever seen and that's good.
"If we like a variety in our diet of foods, we have to have the pollinators, and honeybees are a critical pollinator of over 90 crops in the state of Florida," Young said.
In Moore's neighborhood, the hive is getting some buzz, because you just can't bee-lieve your eyes when you see it.
Another unusual thing about the hive is that it's dripping honey onto the roof, which adds to an already sticky situation.
Young wishes Moore would keep the hive but understands that not everyone would.
"You've got to look at your situation and see if you can tolerate honey dripping on your roof or pieces of a beehive periodically coming off and hitting the ground," Young said.
That's what stings for Moore, because his three grandchildren play in the yard a lot.
"Obviously, the curiosity of children to run up and pick up something that lands on the ground can turn into something devastating," Moore said.
"They do have stingers," Young said. "They will sting you as soon as you try to disturb their home."
Young said the bees will probably die off when the temperature reaches about 60 degrees. The question is if Moore wants to wait that long.
He said he got an estimate over the phone Friday for removing the bees and it would cost about $450, because it requires renting a cherry picker to reach the hive.
Some other beekeepers said they'd take it down for free if Moore hired a cherry picker, but he said he can't afford one.
So to bee or not to bee will not be answered Friday.