So there I was planting in the garden…lost in my own thoughts, when I vaguely noticed a very loud humming coming towards me.
I kept working.
Suddenly, the hum become a roar of buzzing and I looked up to see that I was surrounded by thousands of bees. Thousands…of…bees…right over my head. They were swarming and I happened to be right in their path.
Being the brave gardener that I am, I calmly sat down my trowel and slowly walked away.
ARE YOU KIDDING ME? I dropped my trowel like it was on fire and ran like a bat out of hell!
Don’t get me wrong. I LOVE bees. They are my garden buddies! I do everything I can to bring these guys into my garden, especially with the bee crisis that is going on. But I am highly allergic and the thought of six or seven of those little guys hitting my head at once and getting stuck in my hair freaked me out a bit.
I ran about 20 feet away so that I could observe them from a safer distance. It was amazing to watch the way they swirled and moved as a unit. Then just as quickly as they came, they suddenly started landing in the tiny bay tree in my veggie section. Right where I was planting! Dang.
As my swarm of bees clustered in the bay tree, they formed a mass that was about 8″ wide and 12″ tall.
I did a Google search and learned that bee swarms are usually not aggressive because they do not have a hive to protect and they are busy looking for a new home. But if provoked, they will attack. They usually only stay a day or two until one of the scout bees finds a more suitable location…which is hopefully not in your barbecue, the eve of your house or some other inconvenient place.
But let’s face it. I live in the city and unfortunately, most places in our backyards would be considered “inconvenient” for bees. (Inconvenient for US, not them.)
I am sure they saw my garden in this big city and thought, “Whoo-Hoo! Check this place out boys! This place has food, water and no pesticides. Go get the Queen and we can set up PARTY CITY here!”
As I watched them, I realized that I was giving these bees the same considerations I would give any unexpected house guest. They can be a fun surprise, but I also knew that they can cause trouble.
You know what I mean?
You don’t mind a visit from an old friend, but it needs to be within reason. They can come by everyday, have a snack and perhaps a drink. But if they start spending the night and/or causing trouble in the neighborhood, you would have to ask them to leave. My tiny garden just doesn’t have a suitable location for a swarm and I have kindergarten tours here. I can’t have the kids screaming and running from bees.
So lets just hope these are street-smart bees. The kind of bees that know that there is an open field with trees one street over.
For now, I am enjoying watching my little swarm as it visits my garden. I just hope they enjoy their visit and move on…just down the road a bit. Just don’t set up house in my garden shed or my patio. Okay boys?
Stay tuned…(see comments for updates)
You can learn more about the bee crisis/Colony Collapse Disorder at these links:
Scientific American Article with the latest information on Colony Collapse Disorder
EXCELLENT Video about the Bee Crisis
About the Author
Theresa Loe blogs here about taking the garden full circle while striving for a more local, fresh-from-the-garden lifestyle. She is a TV producer, video host, freelance garden writer and a wrangler of chickens and children. (Not necessarily in that order.) For more information on these topics, you can subscribe to her free monthly newsletter.
Theresa Loe is the award- winning Co-Executive Producer & Canning Expert on Growing A Greener World TV. She blogs here about Living Homegrown®, local and fresh-from-the-garden. 
{ 8 comments… read them below or add one }
About 15 minutes after I posted this entry, the bees LEFT. One minute they were there, the next minute they were gone. They must have swarmed and moved to another area. My husband and I walked all around the house and can’t seem to find them.
I hope they found a suitable home and if not, I hope who ever finds them does not kill them. If you ever have a swarm in your trees, there are bee people that can come out to capture the swarm and relocate them to another area. Just look in the yellow pages under Bee Control and find someone who will capture (not kill) the swarm for you.
Thats amazing. I live in the country and the site of bees and or a bee hive is a reasonably common occurrence. But I have never seen a swarm come and go so quickly like that.
Hi Garden Sheds,
Well, I really think they were just resting because the spot they picked in my garden was not a suitable home. It is a small tree, very exposed.
But who knows. Perhaps they will be back when they discover their new spot doesn’t have squash, pumpkins and herbs like mine does!
That’s so cool! (I mean from a distance of course.) I hope those bees find a good home & return individually to visit your garden.
Thanks for visiting Mr. McGregor’s Daughter!!
I hope they come back too. We had rain yesterday, so I didn’t see many bees. But I will be watching for my little friends all week.
I like your metaphor about the unexpected house guest…they look quite nice actually. I had a visitor from Europe a few weeks ago from Europe who is a pro bee keeper and was listening to his stories for hours. I sent him the link to this post in an email. Nice post.
How exciting! And how wonderful that they left! I admire your cool head in grabbing a camera. Must have been a long lens, huh?
Ha ha ha
No it wasn’t a long lens Robin. But I did use my full zoom power!
~Theresa
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