Everybody in - don't panic!

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Yesterday my plans to do a little gardening were foiled when I saw this through the kitchen window …

Not the greatest of photos but I was indoors, didn’t fancy being stung by a Bee at all!

They gathered together and settled in the Escallonia hedging for about 3 hours. Later in the day a post on our village Facebook page remarked on seeing many Bees flying across their garden and here’s a comment posted today.

*As there was a post about a swarm of bees posted I thought I would add a few more details.
You see a swarm of bees this time of year because it’s when beehives see a big population explosion to get ready for the nectar and pollen harvest . It’s also a way of increasing bee numbers .Basically an old queen takes half the workers and males and sets up a new hive.
The old hive will make or has made a new queen and the process can begin again.
Male bees called drones are bigger and have much bigger eyes .They don’t have stingers and their only job is to lounge around eating honey and pollen and then mate with a queen ( sound familiar ladies 😆😆).
Female worker bees do all the jobs in the beehive.
When first born they become nurse bees and look after the eggs . Roughly every 10 days they change jobs and then become house bees cleaning the hive and making comb . And finally they become forager bees . It’s only the older bees that become foragers because when a bees dies at about 40 days they don’t return to the hive . They will sleep outside the hive and if they see another sunrise they will keep working. Older bees also become guard bees as they don’t have long to live and don’t mind stinging you🙄😆.
Finally the only difference between a queen bee and a regular bee is that she is fed on royal jelly her whole life. Now she will live for up to 5 years not 40 days . They are fascinating to me . Anyway I hope you found it interesting and sorry for the long post.

If you look to the centre of the photo you should be able to see the Bees all cuddled up together!

Every day’s a school day!

• 4 May, 2025
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