The bees in question - the Hornets of the NBA and the Sting of the Women's NBA - have their eyes on new Hives in Kentucky or Virginia or Louisiana.

And here in Charlotte, folks don't seem too concerned by the possibility the bees might flee.

On Tuesday evening, as another sparse crowd trickled into the Charlotte Coliseum for the Hornets' game against the New York Knicks, members of the BeeKeepers - a grass-roots group dedicated to keeping the Sting and Hornets - fanned out near the main arena entrance, looking for people to sign a petition supporting governmental efforts to keep the teams here.

Henry Gray, 32, of Charlotte, was one of those stopping to sign.

"It's just a way to show support," he said. "We really need to keep a professional team here. This is the way the city's going to grow."

Rock Hill native Courtney Jones, 24, home from school at Ohio State for the holidays, also put pen to paper in support of the Hornets, saying "I just think (the NBA) is good for the community. It's a revenue-bringer."

But he admitted, "Signing the petition doesn't really make the taxpayers want to spend money for a new arena."

The Hornets have been shopping themselves to other cities - including Louisville, Ky., Norfolk, Va., New Orleans, St. Louis and Anaheim, Calif. - since June, when Charlotte voters rejected a referendum question that, among other things, would have approved city financing of a $195 million uptown arena.

Hornets' co-owner Ray Wooldridge has said he will decide the team's future by next month.

Some fans at Tuesday's game would be just as glad to see the Hornets depart.

Joy and Leon Casteel of Mooresville have been season ticketholders since 1990, but shook their heads when asked to lend their names to the BeeKeeper cause.

"It's ridiculous," said Joy Casteel. "I think it's time for a change. I think they (the team) are burned out, and so are the fans."

Gene Williams, one of the leaders of the BeeKeepers (and a former executive vice president at The Observer), said the group has gathered about 6,000 signatures over the last couple of months. That includes online declarations, signatures gathered by about 15 volunteers and petitions circulated at local companies.

Williams said the group hopes to eventually present 15,000 signatures to the NBA as proof the Hornets are wanted in Charlotte.

And he noted that a BeeKeepers fact sheet summarizing the Hornets' contributions to Charlotte (over $250,000 in annual charitable donations; 900 visits to churches, hospitals, schools and the like) is being used by a group in Louisville as an argument in favor of luring the team there.

In November, the BeeKeepers sponsored billboards that appeared around the city, with individuals and companies paying to declare "I'm a BeeKeeper."

Comments posted on the group's Web site show there are still some pockets of passion for the Hornets:

"This would just be another big country town without the Hornets."

"I can't believe it has actually gotten to this point. The Hornets cannot be allowed to leave."

"Born and raised in the Queen City. As Gen. Cornwallis noted: `Hornets are indigenous to Charlotte'"

Even so, the BeeKeepers' 6,000 signatures represent only about a quarter of the crowd that filled the Coliseum to capacity nightly during the Hornets' glory days.

Since voters delivered a resounding 57-43 rejection of June's referendum question, fans have emphasized the point with their feet and wallets: an average of just 7,711 attended the Hornets' first nine regular-season games.

BeeKeepers founder Larry Black was at Tuesday's game in a Santa Claus suit and his own naturally white beard. As he dispensed candy canes to children, he defended his seemingly quixotic crusade to save the Hornets.

"Can you think of a single positive comment that has come from any element of this community, except the BeeKeepers, to keep the Hornets in Charlotte?" he said. "We're doing what we can, because nobody else is doing anything. We are fighting everybody, especially apathy.

"I feel like a salmon sometimes," he said. "But, by God, they do get upstream to spawn."