Bees!

Did anyone else get invaded by bees today? There were hundreds flying over the garden for over an hour. They kept landing on us, taking a break from they're flight!

It was probably a swarm.
Normally a colony has one queen. When the colony is strong early in the year they will rear another queen and when she’s mated she’ll take a portion of the colony and leave to find a new home to start a new colony. This is called swarming, and the swarm will often land in temporary location - often in a tree or bush - and send scours out to look for a new nest site.
When this happens it’s often a good idea to close your doors and windows so that the scouts aren’t tempted to find a nest site indoors. If it looks like they want to take-up residence under the eves of your house then spraying them with water from a hosepipe will usually encourage them to go elsewhere.

Swarms aren’t usually aggressive, as the bees will gorge themselves with honey from the nest before leaving, which makes them quite docile.
If you are stung by a bee then the bee leaves behind a venom sack that continues to pump the venom into your body after the bee has left. If you take hold of the venom sack to pull the sting out then you’ll simply squeeze the remaining venom into your body. You should scrape the sting out with a fingernail across the surface of the skin.
I like wasps, who can sting multiple times and will sting just for the hell of it, a bee can only sting once. Leaving behind the venom sack pulls vital organs out of the bee’s abdomen, so the bee will die as a result. This means that bees don’t sting as readily as wasps, but when they do the sting is more painful as the sting is a histamine which causes a significant reaction in most people.

Pete.

Thanks that's very interesting stuff!

Just leave them alone there are the saviours of the Planet

yes I agree with jpeg, I picked one up the other day and placed it safely above ground level so it would,nt get trod on ,we need more bees,

My friend had them on Monday in a bush by wed they were gone no need to touch them

Does anyone know if there is a local beekeeping association or club?