Jeff M
New Bee
- Joined
- May 10, 2015
- Messages
- 46
- Reaction score
- 0
- Location
- Cambridgeshire
- Hive Type
- National
- Number of Hives
- 1 National & 1 Rose
I had a very unusual experience with my bees yesterday.
Last Thursday I checked my bees in the morning and discovered a very large cluster of bees covering two sides of my national hive. I assumed they were getting ready to swarm so collected them in a box and later transferred them to a five frame nuc. After that everything seemed fine until yesterday.
My wife was in the garden around mid-day and came to tell me that she could hear a lot of noise from the bees. When I checked the hives, the bees were piling out of the entrance to the nuc and starting to swarm.
It took about 10-15 minutes for them all to leave and I watched the swarm move across my neighbour's garden to the next garden along. I was watching them whilst standing on a bench hoping to see where they settled so I could retrieve them later.
They stayed above that garden for about 15-20 minutes before turning around and heading back to my garden, straight back to the nuc. They formed a big cluster on the outside of the nuc whilst they were filing back in as quick as they'd left. Most curious thing I've ever seen!
Glad to have the bees back and they're still happy today back in the nuc.
Anyone seen this before or have any idea what happened?
Last Thursday I checked my bees in the morning and discovered a very large cluster of bees covering two sides of my national hive. I assumed they were getting ready to swarm so collected them in a box and later transferred them to a five frame nuc. After that everything seemed fine until yesterday.
My wife was in the garden around mid-day and came to tell me that she could hear a lot of noise from the bees. When I checked the hives, the bees were piling out of the entrance to the nuc and starting to swarm.
It took about 10-15 minutes for them all to leave and I watched the swarm move across my neighbour's garden to the next garden along. I was watching them whilst standing on a bench hoping to see where they settled so I could retrieve them later.
They stayed above that garden for about 15-20 minutes before turning around and heading back to my garden, straight back to the nuc. They formed a big cluster on the outside of the nuc whilst they were filing back in as quick as they'd left. Most curious thing I've ever seen!
Glad to have the bees back and they're still happy today back in the nuc.
Anyone seen this before or have any idea what happened?
