Old bees' nest shut up in a hollow tree

[Anthony Appleyard]

In https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZZTjqll8trE (Sawing a Rotted out White Oak) :: at time 21:10 he ran into a pocket of black tarry stuff which one of his viewers (Paul Beverly 9 months ago) thought was the remains of an old bees' nest which had got shut inside by the tree growing.

 

[Ian123]

Yup could well be old comb but don’t think bees are going to sit there and watch the front door grow shut!!! Bees can do a pretty good job of widening wood entrances when they want to.

 

[user 6228]

honey bees have a set of tunneling/burrowing behaviours, which we normally never see much evidence of in wooden hives. We as bee keepers use this behaviour in the "Newspaper" method of joining colonies. Those of us who have made hives out of softer material have seen their considerable propensity to tunnel. I doubt a tree would grow over an active nest

 

[Buzzlodge]

I think old tree fungus can sometimes look black and tarry...