If a swarm is in progress, you will see a lot of bees flying and milling about over about a ten to twenty metre area – the air will appear thick with bees. If you watch carefully from a safe distance you will see the activity is centred around a cluster of bees on a branch usually some way off the ground. Eventually, in an hour or less, the flying activity will more-or-less cease and the hanging cluster of bees will remain in place. Often this cluster will look like a rugby ball. This is a SWARM – it can be collected by a beekeeper and turned back into a productive honey-bee colony. Eventually, if left to itself, this cluster will fly off to a new home, usually within 24 hours.
Very, very occasionally you may come across a swarm cluster that has forgotten to move on and taken up permanent residence where it clustered, usually in a thick, well-sheltered hedge.
I love that description: '... cluster that has forgotten to move on ...' It seems somehow appropriate that, of all the bees in all the world, the stupid ones that 'forget' to move on are the ones that end up in our garden.
I've left a message for a local beekeeper seeking advice. The BA website says that, for several reasons, it's best to have the swarm collected by a beekeeper. The most compelling is this one: if left to itself, it will move on and become a wild colony. In this case it will almost certainly die within a year or so and act as a potential source of disease infection to other beekeepers' colonies in the meantime.
But Husband knows better. It's a man thing, isn't it? Knowing better than any expert on any subject? He wants to keep it in the garden. But I'm here and he's not, so who're we gonna call? Beekeepers!
P.S. I just remembered a book I read a year or so ago: The Secret Life of Bees. I should have paid more attention to the bits about bees. It's a good book though if you get a chance to read it. 
6 comments:
Many years ago a swarm made itself at home on the side of the house I was living in at the time. It was on an outside bedroom wall and I found the buzzing quite sinister and frightening and called the landlord who dealt with them.
I can do without that, thanks.
I hope the beekeeper comes to collect the swarm! Interesting that in the wild they won't last--you would think it would be the other way around.
The Secret Life of Bees is one of my favorite books! Have you read The Mermaid Chair also? It's just as good.
So glad they're forgetful bees! As you say, only in your garden could they settle!
I'm sure George would love a nest of bees to play with! Good luck with the beekeeper!
Loved that book.
I loved that book :-)
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