ON A hot humid Monday afternoon, a swarm of European honey bees was spotted by the banks of the Bega River by a group of friends having lunch taking sanctuary from the heat under the trees.
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“They were a crazy, swirling volume, making a constant droning sound at first,” one of the witnesses Wendy Neville said with excitement.
“Then they became very quiet and formed an evolving pendulum that became warped and distorted as it moved.”
Local apiarist Trevor Jory of Black Range Farm said that if a colony becomes unhappy with its queen it may move on in the search of a new hollow, producing a replacement queen.
“It may be that the queen is old and not producing enough eggs,” he said.
“It’s all about pheromones - if they become weak then a new queen will be created.”
The Australian Government Department of the Environment describes the European honey bee as an invasive species whose impact on native biology is yet to be sufficiently researched.
The species has been in great decline in the northern hemisphere in recent years for reasons yet to be fully determined by the scientific community; however the use of pesticides has been fingered by the European Union.
The decline has been called Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD), but is yet to be seen in Australian colonies.
Bermagui beekeeper Adrian Iodice doubted there would be any apiarist interested in collecting the swarm with which to start a hive.
"I don't think anyone will be interested as it is the end of the season, and usually swarms don't do too well at this time of year," Mr Iodice said.
"There is not so much forage for them.
"You can think of them as a baby organism, trying to get enough fat on its body to get through winter.
"A colony that is started in spring is able to pick up enough fat to last it through winter, but a colony that's started now will find it difficult to survive," Mr Iodice said.
However, he said it depended where you are, as hives started on the coast may have a better chance of surviving than those started inland.
By Thursday afternoon the colony had moved on in search of a new home.
Loyal bees to the old queen still hummed around hollows in the trunk, their loyalty leaving them with an unsure future.
Earlier this month it was reported in the Sydney Morning Herald that Australian Scientists from Maquarie University in Sydney are the first to propose an explanation for the rapid collapse of bee colonies.
If external stressors such as pesticides or predators kill too many forager bees, the next generations of foragers may be unable to supply the colony with enough resources to keep the colony from collapsing within even just a few weeks, said Research leader Doctor Andrew Barron.
