Trampoline

Bee swarms choose comedy locations:

Full story here: https://www.peterboroughtoday.co.uk/news/people/peterborough-family-discovers-huge-bee-swarm-clinging-to-their-trampoline-as-local-beekeepers-offer-advice-on-what-to-do-if-you-find-one-8298611

Bees on a bicycle

https://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/offbeat/eye-popping-moment-huge-swarm-of-bees-assemble-outside-edinburgh-library/ar-BB1oQCC4

Swarm of bees forces Primark in Canterbury to be evacuated

Nice piece here: https://www.kentonline.co.uk/canterbury/news/swarm-of-bees-forces-primark-to-be-evacuated-308828/ 

Does my swarm look big in this?

Looks like a *lot* of bees in Glasgie: https://www.thenational.scot/news/23619113.63rd-1st-glasgow-restaurant-forced-close-huge-bee-swarm/ 

Swarm collection

How's that?

Cricket Ireland forced to call out beekeeper after unexpected swarm delays domestic clash

https://wisden.com/stories/news-stories/cricket-ireland-call-out-beekeeper-unexpected-swarm-delays-domestic-clash-ire

In my own back yard

Today, a swarm obligingly landed on a tree in my garden.

Cowdenbeath

I lived in Fife for a while.

https://www.centralfifetimes.com/news/19383449.real-buzz-cowdenbeath-last-week/

Shake, shake, shake yer body

Neat piece about how bee swarms hang together,"What a bundle of buzzing bees can teach engineers about robotic materials."  https://theconversation.com/what-a-bundle-of-buzzing-bees-can-teach-engineers-about-robotic-materials-125194

Schools of fish and murmurations of starlings exhibit the same basic mechanisms, using sight-proximity.

https://theconversation.com/what-a-bundle-of-buzzing-bees-can-teach-engineers-about-robotic-materials-125194

Full to overflowing

Three colonies full to bursting; threw on two supers each as a temporary swarm-control measure (which won't work, but I lives in 'opes).

Now that's what I call a swarm...

 

Swarming in Co Fermanagh

Ethel Irvine of the Fermanagh Beekeepers' Association writes "Swarming problems for beekeepers as summer arrives"

Well, summer arrives at diffrnt times in diffrnt places, I guess. The article includes a good description of a Pagden, among many other things.

https://www.impartialreporter.com/news/18504958.swarming-problems-beekeepers-summer-arrives/

Very dark queen; most of mine are practically orange!

https://www.fermanaghbeekeepers.com/

Bait hive success - with a QE twist

This year I placed a hive, populated with brood frames and super frames divided by a QE, on some spare ground away from the apiary.

Would it attract a swarm? For the first time in 15 years, YES! 

In fact, I had largely forgotten the hive, and only checked from time to time. When I noticed a ton of activity, it was at the roof, not the entrance. Ambling over to check, I found a full swarm and queen. 

The bees had chosen the roof vents as their preferred entrance, and then clustered in the super. When I looked through the hive, I found the Q isolated, walking around by herself below the QE.

My guess is that the swarm wriggled through the vents, but the Q was too big, so she flew in the normal way, and the bees had not figured out that they needed to move down. 

Anyways, I blocked the vents and the foragers soon switched to the main entrance. After a week I looked again, and the Q is now laying in the brood box. 

Walking home

Swarm, or cast?

Too high to reach, unfortunately, and no access from the roof

Tang It!

Called out to collect a swarm today, the bees pushed off moments before I arrived. Maybe tanging would have helped. My preferred method is cussing.

https://digital.nls.uk/moir/tanging.html

Swarmshaker

Neat way to grab a swarm... https://twitter.com/i/status/1249581328963682309

A swarm in July ain't worth a fly

Spa Hill Allotments

Enormous swarm of bees causes 'panic' in Limerick

Why is 'panic' in inverted commas? Anyway, here's the enormous swarm: https://www.irishtimes.com/news/ireland/irish-news/crazy-swarm-of-bees-in-limerick-captured-on-camera-1.3952725

I like this bit from the article: "It is understood two local beekeepers arrived soon afterwards to retrieve the bees which are becoming an endangered species across Europe."

Really?

I don't normally wear my hair this long. Pic from https://www.aier.org/article/anatomy-moral-panic

Swarm Silly Season is back again