Hi all
I thought it was pretty clear that honey bees cannot hear as they have no ears nor other organs for the purpose of picking up airborne vibrations. Obviously, they are very sensitive to vibrations in the hive, undoubtedly picking them up via their feet, etc. However, I thought hearing per se was pretty much ruled out. In view of all that, this is especially curious:


All attempts to scare bee-eaters from fields where they preyed on bees failed. Importantly, of bee-eaters that were caught and translocated, the proportion of birds that were retrapped decreased as the distance of release increased. Few birds returned after displacement over 35 km from the capture site. This suggests that the birds are capable of making a cost : benefit consideration and only those that are capable will continue their migration away from the study area in the Arava.   
We also discovered that captured bee-eaters must be removed immediately form the mist-nets. 

In the mid-1990s a hybrid strain of bees was found to be more durable to conditions in Israel and to give a better overall product in the form of greater quantities of honey produced and that had a higher survival rate. In the field, this new strain of bees is very aggressive and attacks humans quite readily. They also have the ability to discern between calls of bee-eaters that are hunting and those that a retrapped in the mist-nets (pers. obs.). 

The calls of the birds in the nets are short "purrp" calls in contrast to the large variety of contact calls made while in flight or foraging around the beehives. Activity in the latter instance is greatly reduced but when they hear the calls of a trapped bird in the vicinity of their hive they attack the bird as a horde and appear to have a preference for the unfeathered parts of the bird. In the 37 birds recovered to date, post-mortem has shown that the bees almost invariably attacked the eyes first. 

Only then did the swarm attack other places like the gape, the legs, or crawl under the feathers and attack the body. Feathered parts are rarely stung. We have found that as few as two stings directly in the eye kills the bird within 20 minutes.  I have not previously heard of their ability to discern between the different vocalizations of the predators although I am aware of this in Loggerhead Shrikes (Umius ludovicianus) who have predator specific calls. 

Yosef, R. (2004). Resolving the apiculture and migratory bee-eater (Merops apiaster) conflict in the Arava valley, Israel. Advances in vertebrate pest management. Flinder, Furth, 117-122.

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