Feral Bees

Took the dogs out for a walk in the sunshine. They've missed their walk for the last few rainy days.

Just down the road some bees circling around drew our attention to this:

We must have walked past here a hundred times, but never before noticed this colony of bees living in a tree stump beside the road. Perhaps that's because we don't normally go out walking in the middle of the day?

A closer look:

I couldn't get too close. They are bees, after all! But this seems to be a very exposed place to set up home. I'll be surprised if the colony survives the winter. Unless there is an enormous reserve of honey further inside the stump, I don't think the bees will have enough energy to keep the core of the colony at 36 degrees when the air outside is below zero at times, and not very warm for the rest of the time.