Correct me if I’m wrong because English is not my first language, but my understanding from reading this article is that this is NOT a colony. It is a large area where over 5 million bees are living spread out. Link

Giant root-rat

This article says it was for raw vegetables:

For our ancestors, the appendix most likely evolved to help them digest a diet rich in raw vegetables and cellulose, as it still does in many herbivorous mammals. Thousands of years ago it would have functioned as an extension of the cecum, involved in the bacterial digestion of fibrous plant materials.