Bee swarm almost in the bag

Aly Thomson was walking along on her Wattle Crescent property, looking at the ground as she sprayed, then straightened up and turned her head – to find her face 30cm from a bee swarm.

“I nearly walked into the darn thing – it was right at my face level,” she said. “If I’d knocked them they would have attacked.”

She did the bolt but had the great advantage of a partner whose grandfather was a beekeeper at Mona Vale, so she had some knowledge of bee behaviour.

“She knew that as long as you didn’t attack them they wouldn’t go for you,” Ms Thomson said.

She said the big lump wasn’t bees on honeycomb – it was solid bees and would have a queen at the centre which they were sure would have come from the hive in a nearby gum tree.

“We decided we would collect them into a big wooden bread box and then buy a proper bee box – you can get them at Glenhaven.

“We put the box on a chair then lowered the wattle branch so the swarm touched the box. They started moving into the box.

“They were nearly all in and we were about to go and buy the box when a huge wind gust knocked the box over and they all took off!

“We can’t find where the swarm has gone. It was a bit sad that it failed as we were looking forward to the honey.”

The NSW Department of Primary Industries says bees swarm from September to December. When a hive becomes overcrowded, the old queen moves out with about half the resident bees and forms a swarm on a fence or bush while scouts look for a good location for a new hive.

“Bee swarms are not normally aggressive because they are gorged full of honey and are homeless, which reduces their defensive behaviour. A swarm will become increasingly defensive, if provoked, the longer it remains in a given location,” the DPI said.

It advises not to remove swarms yourself but to ring your local council for contact details of beekeepers who will do it for a fee.