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IF THERE’S something strange in your neighbourhood, who you gonna call? Beekeepers.
On Tuesday, September 1, swarming bees at the Bega River Reserve created “a wall” before they were captured and relocated to a hive in Bermagui.
Spring is swarming season, and Adrian Iodice from Beekeeping Naturally thought due to recent rains and plentiful food available over winter for bees it would be a good season for swarms.
On Tuesday, Chani Keefer was cycling along the Bega River Reserve when she saw a swarm of bees ahead of her.
“My daughter and I were riding along the bike path and they were swarming between the tree and the picnic table,” she said.
“It looked like a wall of bees.”
Ms Keefer called Mr Iodice, a natural beekeeper from Bermagui, to come and collect the swarm.
As the bees were clustered about a picnic table leg, he had to brush some into a box then left the box there so the rest would follow.
Ms Keefer saw a woman walk through the cloud of bees when they were swarming and not get stung, which did not surprise Mr Iodice.
“Generally bees are not aggressive when swarming, as the organism is not protecting its home, not protecting its babies,” he said.
Although he did say these bees were a bit vicious, because they were wild.
“These bees are also very dark, which is a good indicator that they come from a feral colony,” he said.
“Bees that come from a breeder are bred to be docile.”
Mr Iodice said the bees were probably swarming because new queens were about to hatch in their old home, so the old queen had taken a collection of other bees to look for a new place to live.
He said the new queens will fight to the death after they hatch, with only one remaining in the old hive.
In an age where bees are dying off over the world due to such problems as Colony Collapse Disorder and pesticides, he said it was good to see bees swarming.
In Germany, for example, Mr Iodice said there are no more bees in the wild – ones that swarm out of a domestic hive and take up residence in trees and so on die off over winter.
Then in northern China, he said, there are hardly any bees and people have resorted to pollinating plants by hand.
If you see bees swarming contact Bega Valley Amateur Beekeepers Association members Tim on 0448 301 220 or Lyall on 0418 816 908 and they can organise someone to collect them.
“A lot of people get scared when they see bees swarming and call an exterminator,” Mr Iodice said.
“But usually the exterminators call the [beekeeping] club; they don’t want to kill bees either.”
The beekeepers association holds meetings on the second Tuesday of each month from 7pm at the Meals on Wheels rooms at the corner of Auckland/Bega Sts, Bega.
New members are welcome.