Smoking! The bees at Benslow were calm today but it was a different story last weekend. Working in the gardens with Jif on the Saturday and Sunday there were swarms both days. Ashley -Benslow's beekeeper- was called in.

 He said he was more or less expecting swarming to occur and had observed "swarm preparations" in the hives during the weeks before. We had that cold spell late April-early May then the weather turned warm at which point bees are liable to depart en masse. 

 Ashely got to work separating queens along with brood and food in several of the hives. Transferring them creates colonies in vacant hives and this division reduces the likelihood of swarming. 

 Sometimes a swarm may be a mating foray whereby the queen leaves the hive but returns soon after along with her followers. When bees swarm to find a new home they will cluster for several hours e.g. on a branch then depart. Both kinds of swarm were evident at Benslow and at least one colony has gone but Ashley's intervention was timely.