Cloud of very small bees: Why?

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or maybe you were standing in the next field when you saw them yesterday! :oops: :smilielol5:
I think you should have gone to Specsavers πŸ˜πŸ˜πŸ˜πŸ˜„
Nobody believes me, it isn't fair, you're all out to get me........
Rock On Party GIF
 
I do, not blindly, but accept that you have seen that cloud of small bees. After solving the perception problem, it is a matter of getting into the hive. Every time you open you should collect three nurse bees, ideally as young as possible, and another three forage bees in the bee hole. Measure them with a "vertical caliper" or a caliper stand.
Everything else will be useless guesses.
 
We saw and heard a Kookaburra on our allotment yesterday. A neighbour allotmenter got a pic so I hope to post this when available - just in case no one believe me............:)
 
Nobody believes me, it isn't fair, you're all out to get me........
Rock On Party GIF
For what its worth I also saw a cloud of small bees issuing from a hive the other day - straight onto my legs from a 14x12 plus standard brood hive that I had neglected to attend to end of last season. Damn thing was rammed with bees, chock full of stores and well glued down, so they had a warning that their world was about to be split apart.
They were very small though compared to some others in the hive.
 
We saw and heard a Kookaburra on our allotment yesterday. A neighbour allotmenter got a pic so I hope to post this when available - just in case no one believe me............:)
Pic not yet available so I'd better explain - in case folk think I'm prone to tell porkies!
A neighbour up the road breeds bird of prey - for falconers etc and I believe takes in injured raptors. He avoids publicity. A few years ago and shortly after returning from down-under, we were delighted for several weeks to hear a Kookaburra calling and were told that he had one or more on his premises.
Four days ago an allotment neighbour and I heard a Kook very nearby yet seemingly c.300m from the bird breeder's dwelling.
Yesterday SWMBO and a different allotment neighbour saw a Kook flitting from tree to tree and calling. We assume it has escaped from down the road. The neighbour took a pic.
PS: About 10 years ago SWMBO and I were on safari with others down-under and sitting round the campfire eating what we had just cooked. We noticed a Kook perched on a nearby post. Suddenly it swooped and flew off with a sausage from my neighbour's plate........:laughing-smiley-004
 
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Pic not yet available so I'd better explain - in case folk think I'm prone to tell porkies!
A neighbour up the road breeds bird of prey - for falconers etc and I believe takes in injured raptors. He avoids publicity. A few years ago and shortly after returning from down-under, we were delighted for several weeks to hear a Koockaburra calling and were told that he had one or more on his premises.
Four days ago an allotment neighbour and I heard a Kook very nearby yet seemingly c.300m from the bird breeder's dwelling.
Yesterday SWMBO and a different allotment neighbour saw a Kook flitting from tree to tree and calling. We assume it has escaped from down the road. The neighbour took a pic.
PS: About 10 years ago SWMBO and I were on safari with others down-under and sitting round the campfire eating what we had just cooked. We noticed a Kook perched on a nearby post. Suddenly it swooped and flew off with a sausage from my neighbour's plate........:laughing-smiley-004
What an exciting life you lead! πŸ˜‰
 
Pic not yet available so I'd better explain - in case folk think I'm prone to tell porkies!
A neighbour up the road breeds bird of prey - for falconers etc and I believe takes in injured raptors. He avoids publicity. A few years ago and shortly after returning from down-under, we were delighted for several weeks to hear a Koockaburra calling and were told that he had one or more on his premises.
Four days ago an allotment neighbour and I heard a Kook very nearby yet seemingly c.300m from the bird breeder's dwelling.
Yesterday SWMBO and a different allotment neighbour saw a Kook flitting from tree to tree and calling. We assume it has escaped from down the road. The neighbour took a pic.
PS: About 10 years ago SWMBO and I were on safari with others down-under and sitting round the campfire eating what we had just cooked. We noticed a Kook perched on a nearby post. Suddenly it swooped and flew off with a sausage from my neighbour's plate........:laughing-smiley-004
One "problem" with Kookaburras is they are always laughing when you do something stupid in the apiary. They get the timing perfect!
 
Yes, never a dull moment here on the arid (apart from OSR currently in full bloom) arable lands of the east.
BTW, a few years ago an eagle-owl escaped from the bird breeder's aviary. Amazingly it was recaptured from Thetford Forest several miles away. I don't know the details.
 
BTW, a few years ago an eagle-owl escaped from the bird breeder's aviary.
There are some living wild I understand. Wonderful birds....when I opened my veterinary surgery in 1985, naturalist Graham Dangerfield, who luckily was a friend of my sister, came to our open day with an eagle owl. We got lots of pictures in the local paper which was good publicity. Vets weren't allowed to court publicity in those days and I got rapped over the knuckles by the RCVS but they never did anything else so I got away with it.
As a child our family made regular forays into Thetford to pick mushrooms
 

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