Everyone writing tips saying they got fooled by empty beehives when there is one easy way to tell if its empty or not:

If it buzzes or not.

If you are not close enough to the beehive to tell if it buzzes or not, then you have no reason to be raiding that beehive as you are probably unprepared:

1. Obviously you aren't able to damage the hive with melee attacks since you are on the ground, you should use a different tame or find a new beehive

2. Beehives have a 65% damage reduction against firearms, so if you are aware that you are about to use a lot of resources then go ahead

3.If the beehive you want to raid is too far away for you to tell if it buzzes or not, then at that range you can't even lure queens with honey. The reason why I mention this is because as soon as giant queen bees spawn upon the destruction of their hive they have a bug that makes them fly in a straight line infinitely until they are aggroed/startled/lured with honey, so unless you want to see a queen giant bee slowly fly away into the sky never to be seen again, then do your thing.