By Ali Manns
Standing a step behind me, gripping my elbow, my nine-year-old watched with equal parts fascination and terror. As the frame was lifted free from the hive it revealed some of the 40,000 occupants within – busily working, walking and waggling on the comb. “A bee tsunami!” my boy gasped, suddenly not trusting his beekeeper’s veil.
We were observing the opening of a honey bee hive and learning how to do an inspection as part of an Introduction to Beekeeping workshop. The sight of thousands of crawling creatures was certainly more intimidating than an individual bee on a flower in the garden. But as we watched I reminded him that bees sting only as a last resort and come out worse for the encounter. In fact they die – instantly.
Spring time swarms
The mantra to go gently is particularly relevant in these weeks of spring. Bee colonies, both feral and domestic, are growing in numbers again after winter thanks to the return of pollen and nectar sources in our blossom-filled gardens and parks. And the natural response when hive capacity is reached is for the queen to depart with half the bees in search of a new residence.
You may have come across a swarm at rest – an impressive moving beard of bees draping from a tree branch, utility pole, or random overhang in your neighbourhood.
While the sight might be unnerving, there is little to worry about if they are given space and not interfered with. They will move on once rested and are pretty placid in the meantime. If they’re located in a high-traffic area however such as a school yard or along a footpath their movement needs to be assisted.
SwarmPatrol
So, who should you call? Not pest control. And it’s definitely not a situation for insecticide. Instead an experienced beekeeper is the person for the job of catching and relocating them. There is a dedicated page on Facebook – SwarmPatrol Melbourne – where you can post the location. Or call your Council to be referred to someone local to you.
When the queen and her swarm are gently boxed up it is taken to an empty hive where it can reestablish itself, its new ranging territory, the cycle of making baby bees and creating honey stores.
Backyard beekeeping
Sharing in any surplus honey may be the main aim for beekeeping at a commercial scale but for most backyard keepers it is just a pleasant and not guaranteed bonus. The real motivation is securing the health of bees in the ecosystem and actively caring for a fascinating creature. Their role in pollinating food crops (along with butterflies, birds and bats) means we are highly dependent on the work of these busy little insects even if most of us don’t even notice it.
For my family, our goal is to be among the numbers who take notice. Having them share our garden will increase the harvest from my food crops, and caring for their wellbeing will get us in tune with another component of our natural world. It’s apparently addictive. In fact, my son went home from our course and immediately set to cleaning the second-hand hives we recently purchased. Now to find a tsunami of bees to occupy them.
