In article , Mary
Fisher writes

"Tim Mitchell" wrote in message
...


Thanks Mary, that is interesting to know. I ask because my wife is a bit
worried they are setting up home there, but I've sat and watched them and
I don't think they are, it's just the same few bees circling around the
branch.

Yes, poor little homeless waifs :-(

Maybe I can use them for bee aversion therapy for her. She knows it's
silly to be scared of bees but for some reason she just can't get over it.

No, don't. I'm not criticising your wife but in this situation it's just as
well that she doesn't go near them.

As I said, they can't live long without the colony, worse, without the
colony cohesion the bees are, in our terms, distressed. They could be very
defensive. Swarming bees are the most gentle (in our terms) imaginable, they
don't want to defend anything, they have no brood to care for, they're full
of honey so it's difficult for them to position their tails so that they can
sting - beekeepers often run their hands through a cluster. But when they've
been alone for a day or so, without that 'support', no home and totally
disoriented, they can be very different.

It's a dependence on the chemical which we unimaginatively call 'queen
substance' (I do know the chemical name if you want it!) which the queen
exudes and is passed round the colony continuously, to every bee both within
the hive and outside it while in a swarm. It's a marvellous process. If a
queen is removed from a colony, within as short a time as twenty minutes the
bees are unhandleable, defensive, can sting for apparently no reason.

So keep your wife away from those few waifs, they won't be there long. If
she were stung by one it could confirm her fears about all bees and that
would be a shame.

OK will do, thanks for the warning!
--
Tim Mitchell