Swarm of bees

[Northbloke]

Just sitting in the back garden soaking up some rays in beautiful peace and quiet.

Woken from my reverie by what sounded like a nearby swarm of bees...only to sit up and see heading my way... a huge swarm of bees. Seemed like thousands of them, still fairly high up at this point.

Dashed inside and shut all the doors and windows. The swarm hovered over the hedge between mine and next door for about 20 minutes then gradually moved off and no sign of it now.

What was that all about then?

Lived here for years and not seen anything similar. I know there are some honey bee hives in nearby woods if that's anything to do with it.

[Magic919]

Plenty of keepers to respond in the thread below https://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&...

[monoloco]

this is definitely the week for swarming bees -I'm a beekeeper and have been called out to deal with four swarms in as many days. Most local Beekeepers will come and collect a swarm free of charge -the bees have value to us both ecologically and financially as we can re-home them and hopefully collect some honey a few weeks down the line. Just google your county beekeeping association for contact details of someone who will help.

If you do see a swarm of bees though no need to panic -may seem counter-intuitive but the bees in a swarm fresh out of a hive are at their most relaxed/docile stage you'll ever meet them and you can walk up pretty close to a bunch hanging out of a tree etc -obviously with a bit of common sense applied! Only time a swarm gets nasty is when they've not managed to find a home for a few days (eg if the weather suddenly turns bad) by which time the individual bees are starving hungry and get very aggressive.

[Northbloke]

And they're back!

2 hours on from the first visit I've just heard them again. Looked out and this time the swarm (looked smaller than first time) was only there for a minute or so then shot off across the nearby fields.

There are a few still buzzing about near our hedge. Have they been making a nest in there for the last 2 hours?!

(I did take some phone video but it hasn't come out very well)

[Nimby]

They won't nest in a hedge. Scouts will be looking for an enclosed space - hollow tree trunk, chimney, etc. They are probably just resting, refuelling and leaving pheremones for the scouts to find the main swarm. It can take a swarm several days to find a permanent home.

[Jambo85]

If they're still about definitely give your local association a shout - if you're in England you can probably find them here https://www.bbka.org.uk/about/local_associations/f...

[smudgerebt]

Had bees turn up today.

Seems they are Tree Bees and local bee assocation person said they wont do anything and just leave them.

So as long as they dont sting anyone/anything, left alone they will bee........

[Northbloke]

Thanks for the replies.

Well there's no sign of them later this evening so it looks they were only passing through.

Quite an exciting event now I know they were safe (I had images of them chasing me and making me jump in a river!)

I wish I had got some better pictures of it all now and not scarpered inside.

So how many in a swarm then, seemed like several thousand?

[Nimby]

Northbloke said:

So how many in a swarm then, seemed like several thousand?

Yes easily. A really big swarm can be tens of thousands.