Bees in Trees!!! Oh my!

The neighbors directly across the street had a large black ball in their tree.  As we got closer we noticed they were BEES!!!  Whaaaaaaaaaaaattt??!!

The neighbor a few houses down had the same thing last summer.  Apparently, they can not be disturbed - they're aggressive African bees.  So, a specialized bee dude has to come out, cover the area, cut down the entire limb, and... probably run away as fast as possible.  I wonder what he does with them all?  Surely they don't make good pets.