"Tim Mitchell" wrote in message
...
While we were out yesterday, our neighbour says that a swarm of bees
gathered around a tree in our garden (would've liked to have seen it,
shame we were out). Apparently it stayed a bit and then flew on.

However there are still about 20 or 30 bees hanging around the tree. They
are all landing on a particular spot on one branch and taking off again.
My theory was that they had somehow got separated from the main swarm but
could smell (or something) where it had been on the tree and keep going
back there. But am no expert on bees, so maybe one of our resident uk.diy
bee experts can explain what they are doing.

Even though the swarm clusters on a site (in this case a branch) some bees
will still be flying off, mostly 'scouting' to find a new home. The branch
is only a temporary stop to help them, as it were, assess the situation :-)

When the information about a suitable location has been transmitted to the
colony (by 'dancing' on the surface of the cluster) the whole lot will zoom
off with no delay. This is different from the swirling flight round the
branch while the cluster is settling. There's no hanging about, they mean
business.

But some of the scouts haven't returned, when they do they have no idea
where their sisters and mother (the 'queen') have gone, they've been
abandoned. Some might remember where they came from (the hive) but returning
to the old site is unusual. However, because individual bees can't live long
without the colony they will die after, say, a couple of days.

It's Nature!

Mary