Swarm of Bees!

[Only me!]

On the traffic lights outside Lloyds Bank.

About 3.00 ish this afternoon.

Has anybody lost them or see which way they went?

[SteveT]

Are you an apiarist with an empty hive to fill Only you?

[Andystar]

they are BEEhind u..

[louisiana]

Ha! We learned about dealing with swarms last week (beekeeping class) but I don't have a hive yet.

This is the swarming season.

Best thing is to contact the London Bee Keepers Association. Someone will come out to grab them in a box if they are reachable. Best time is evening... (when they are quieter and they have come together again)

[Asset]

Ask AllforNun.

[louisiana]

And tell her to bring her bonnet.

[chichirara]

Didnt see this post when I put mine up. Yes I saw them were have they gone?

[intexasatthe moment]

Louisana - best be quick otherwise Southwark Pest Control arrive and their policy is to destroy them.

Admin sorry - we've got two threads on same thing now.

[Mick Mac]

if you listen carefully you can hear them... (cups ear).

[intexasatthe moment]

I saw the swarm ( and the unnecessary hysteria from several members of the public ) and luckily was able to contact my friend who was visiting from Cornwall. She has years of bee keeping experience and she rescued said swarm with the aid of a net curtain and gardening gloves for protection and the loan of a fantastic ladder from the public spirited DIY shop

(tu)PLOUGH HOMECRAFT (tu)

To whom a HUGE thankyou.

But and this is a big but - she was only just in time . The police had called Southwark Pest Control and they had arrived ready to destroy them .

How terrible when bees are dying at an alarming rate. Couldn't there be some sort of system where there was a rota of local beekeepers on call to rescue any swarms and the police/ Southwark had their numbers ?

[PeckhamRose]

Is there anyone who has any direct link to the "pest control" at Southwark Council who can answer to this and educate us all as to their policy? This is a good story and "intexas.." and Cornwall Friend and Plough Homecraft are to be applauded bigly.

So where were they all taken? Hope they have a happy new life!

[louisiana]

I'll tell John Chapple at LBKA about this Southwark 'policy', which seems bonkers but very typical of Southwark Council.

He - and the others - deal with many swarms across London every year. The bees, if they can get to them, are re-homed.

[louisiana]

Bees will swarm for a variety of reasons. One is limitations of current space (congestion in the hive). Also the age of the queen. A swarm is basically a bunch of generally older bees, with a queen, in search of a new suitable home. The swarm location is just a temporary holding position while they find a place to set up shop.

Bee-keepers have a number of approaches/tricks to stop their bees from swarming (they don't want to lose a large number of their bees, after all), such as replacing the queen, or using hives with a larger brood area. But these and other tactics are not always successful. Or the bee-keeper may not be keeping a regular enough eye on his/her bees to prevent the swarming from happening, missing the early warming signs. Things can change a lot in a hive in a week at this time of year.

Apparently if you can follow your swarm the bees are still yours, but if you lose the trail, it's finders keepers.

People shouldn't be afraid of or alarmed by swarms. The bees in a swarm are quite docile and apart from sending out a few 'home finders' to locate a new home for the swarm they don't get up to much.

[intexasatthe moment]

Thanks Louisana - just talking to my friend ( who rescued the swarm ) about this .

She was seeing it from southwark's point of view ( H&S ) and saying that she used a different method to get the bees into a box than she normally would to minimise disturbance and the bees flying round.

She was very conscious that it was a public space and that with possibilty of people being allergic to bee stings how she'd feel ,if as a result of her actions collecting them,someone had got stung.

So think we can understand Southwark's reaction - but of course they could at least try to get them recovered by a Bee Keeper .

[cate]

Sounds like a story for the South London Press and the Standard.

[Burbage]

intexasatthe moment Wrote:

-------------------------------------------------------

> How terrible when bees are dying at an alarming

> rate. Couldn't there be some sort of system where

> there was a rota of local beekeepers on call to

> rescue any swarms and the police/ Southwark had

> their numbers ?

There is, and Plod/Southwark do have the number of the local Swarm Coordinator. However, as illustrated by Plod's past statements to this board, Plod has difficulty remembering its own numbers, and the Southwark switchboard is an optimistic experiment in vortical buck-passing, at best.

The council bug-poisoner's number will have been to hand as the council have just moved that function back in-house, and now have targets to fulfill. As Plod will have understoon only too well, such targets easily trump any petty legal restrictions on destroying supposedly protected creatures.

For future reference, the Swarm Coordinator's number for this area is: 07922 147379

[louisiana]

Put the number in your mobile phone ;-)

[intexasatthe moment]

Will do - many thanks !

[louisiana]

intexasatthe moment Wrote:

-------------------------------------------------------

> Thanks Louisana - just talking to my friend ( who

> rescued the swarm ) about this .

> She was seeing it from southwark's point of view (

> H&S ) and saying that she used a different method

> to get the bees into a box than she normally would

> to minimise disturbance and the bees flying

> round.

If you wait until evening, the bees will have all stopped flying around anyway.

> She was very conscious that it was a public space

> and that with possibilty of people being allergic

> to bee stings how she'd feel ,if as a result of

> her actions collecting them,someone had got

> stung.

Bees in swarms rarely sting. Because they are not in a hive, so they are not defending anything, 'cos they have nothing to defend.

Wasps - not bees - are responsible for most allergic reactions in the UK.

>

> So think we can understand Southwark's reaction -

> but of course they could at least try to get them

> recovered by a Bee Keeper .

They could indeed.

[JetSetWilly]

PeckhamRose Wrote:

-------------------------------------------------------

> Is there anyone who has any direct link to the

> "pest control" at Southwark Council who can answer

> to this and educate us all as to their policy?

> This is a good story and "intexas.." and Cornwall

> Friend and Plough Homecraft are to be applauded

> bigly.

>

> So where were they all taken? Hope they have a

> happy new life!

as they are now in effect rescue bees, they have been taken to battersbee bees home, from where it is hoped they can be suitably rehomed.

[fractionater]

how did you "Rescue" the swarm?

did you have to put on your bee-keepers outfit and smoke them out or something?

how did you coax them into a box?!

I'd be sh1tting my pants!...I remember when I was a kid playing cricket, a huge swarm passed over the field... and I nearly cr@pped myself then too!

[Dulwich Born And Bred]

What about wasps nests? We think we have one outside our lounge window as we have noticed swarms of wasps...I am scared to open my bedroom window now because last year every single day a wasp kept coming in my room and I live in fear of getting stung! I have contacted Southwark pest control today about the swarm of wasps outside my house.

[PeckhamRose]

Just spoke to a Southwark Pest Control Officer/Operative type person.

Told him the story and asked what his opinions were.

He said that as bees are protected species there is no way Southwark Pest Controllers would have killed them unless they posed an immediate danger to the public. Maybe the people who called the police out said they were wasps and it got around that Southwark were coming to kill the swarm thinking they were wasps. Misunderstandings could have occurred here. But the bees would have been rescued and saved as far as is possible unless they started being a danger to us delicate human type creatures.

Fortunately, someone else got to them first, and the rest is honery.

Orlando Clarke, the beekeeper at at 192 Ivydale Road, might care to be approached if he wants some? I am not sure how rehoming bees works but I love this forum for the education one gets!

[cate]

Heidi Hi - Pretty sure you have to pay to have wasps nests removed. I had one in a loft a few years back and tried the council and they recommended someone to call. He removed it. It had a few sleepy wasps in it. This was in the autumn though.

[intexasatthe moment]

Peckham Rose - I'm told that wasps don't swarm so S'Wark Pest Control should have no reason to confuse them with bees.

The guy from S'wark Pest Control was absolutely clear " we kill them " is what he said to me.

I've no doubt that although they were not posing an immediate threat ( as Louisana has said swarming bees are not aggressive ) no doubt some case could be made that they were...

it was a very public place and a lot of people were desperately anxious.

More to the point ,the swarm was covering up the camera on the top of the traffic light column so that no doubt would be reason enough.

Louisana - my friend wanted to wait until dark ,but with the general fear being expressed by passersby and the prompt attendence of Southwark (plus my friend was really keen to have them ,her own having been decimated as so many others ) that it would have meant standing guard from 3 to 8 pm.Which we couldn't do.