MANATEE — Ken and Nancy Crayton got a little surprise Wednesday evening.

A big surprise, actually.

Try a cone-shaped bee hive, 3 feet long and 2 feet wide across its top, suspended in a tree near their Perico Island home, whose backyard borders Manatee County’s Perico Island Preserve.

“That is one pretty darn big nest,” said Ken Crayton, a retiree from Rochester, N.Y., showing it off in Thursday morning’s drizzle.

“Oh, my goodness,” said Joan Hayes, the homeowners association vice president, peering at the big hive.

“Never seen anything like it,” her husband Bill said.

The Craytons had just returned last week from spending two months in Anderson, S.C., and invited their son and daughter-in-law for dinner.

“We never noticed anything,” Crayton said. “But our son took their Jack Russell outside for a walk and said, ‘Holy jeepers! Look at the size of that nest up there!’ That’s how we discovered it.”

“As soon as I looked at it, I said, ‘Everybody back in the house,’ ” Nancy Crayton said.

The bees appear to be docile and hadn’t stung anyone as of Thursday.

Charlie Hunsicker, the county’s natural resources department director, wasn’t surprised by the hive’s size.

“These are honey bees taking advantage of their surroundings — thousands of acres of mangroves and wild flowers that bloom in the fall,” he said. “That’s their main source of food.

“They’re an important part of our environment — although you might not want them right in your backyard.”

Hayes said she had contacted the subdivision’s management company and the hive would be taken care of.

Rather than have it exterminated, however, she had a creative solution.

“Maybe we have a way of paying our association dues now,” Hayes kidded. “We can make our own honey, call it ‘Perico Island Honey!’ ”

Vin Mannix, local columnist, can be reached at 745-7055.