Has anybody had a sudden appearance of swarming honeybees?? I was going to post this last night but it turns out I am glad I got disconnected and chose to do it today instead...

Yesterday I came out of the garage and it sounded as if someone had parked a Geo Metro on top of my house and left the engine running. It only took me a second to know that it HAD to be a swarm of bees, and heckuva large one at that. I got my binocs out and began looking about the trees for the usual hanging ball of bees abnd was completely unprepared for what I saw instead. THere were MILLIONS of bees flying erratically around the crown of one particular shingle oak, and they were acting as though someone had taken a shotgun to a hive, wildly darting out at all angles and filling the air for at least 40 feet in any direction. It was very unnerving, especially since I have a history of bee allergy, and because I was afraid they might find a spot under the house which suited them and think of relocating there. I noticed that every bird in the backyard, around the feeders, everywhere, had quietly vanished. I thought of yelling for my husband to come see this, but I decided he might not like being jolted awake to come see a bunch of stinging insects swarm a tree. I went back in the house after something and to check on dinner, and when I went back out, less than ten minutes later, it was silent again and the birds were back. THe bees were gone that quickly. Later that afternoon I thought I heard a tractor running in the field east of our place, which after a second didn't make sense since it is in wheat right now...I decided that maybe my bees hadn't gone that far. I high stepped through the nettle and ivy in the direction of the hum, and as I went further I kept getting more and more amazed at the sound of it. Maybe 200 feet into the woods I was really getting nervous because I recalled how far and wide those suckers were darting about above the trees, and although I hadn't actually spotted them yet in the poor light, I figured it might be safer to go SLOWLY from that point on. It wasn't long before I spotted them....and I have NEVER in my life seen so many bees. I didn't know that many of them would move at one time, unless an entire hive was destroyed. They were going in and out of a tree about a foot and a half in diameter through a gash in the base, but an entire 20 foot section of trunk was covered with crawling bees. I usually love to watch honey bees work around a beetree, but this made me completely uneasy and I only stayed a moment before backing away.

I took my husband out later to see them and he was, as I figured, unimpressed--he'd seen bee trees before. I immediately began kicking myself for not dragging his groggy butt out earlier in the yard to see the spectacle over the house.

Then today as we were leaving a field after planting corn, I saw that he had gotten off the tractor and was motioning at something in the fencerow. As I pulled up I saw a dark blob in a bush and somehow I just knew it had to be more bees. Now he was finally excited. He'd never seen a swarm before and I still tried telling him that this little pile of several hundred bees was nothing at all like the previous day's encounter.

I guess maybe it is that time of year when new queens leave the hive or something?? My great grandpa kept bees but that was way before I came along and I'm afraid I don't know that much about them except that she's somehwere in the middle of the ball of bees and that the rest are scouts going everywhere in the vicinity searching for a safe place to start a new hive.

I do know that if one should sting you close to the hive you'd better have your track shoes on and know how to use them!