One of the UK’s leading beekeepers is warning the latest heatwave will cause “another massive surge in swarming bees” – but urges people not to panic. Laurence Edwards, 39, runs Black Mountain Honey.
Founded in 2020, it now raises over 10 million bees a year and ships them to novice beekeepers throughout the UK from a small base near Mold, North Wales. Edwards said: “During the last heatwave I dealt with at least 25 separate incidents of swarming bees and I fully expect to deal with another massive surge in swarming bees over the next few days.
“The public often find bees swarms scary, because what they see is a ‘cloud’ of up to 50,000 bees. The sky turns black. The sound is deafening, the movement is fast – it looks like danger. But the truth is, swarming bees are generally not aggressive. They have no home to defend, no reason to sting. They’ve gorged on honey and they’re at their calmest.
“People shouldn’t panic. Swarming is the honeybees’ way of surviving. It’s how they reproduce on a colony level. When a hive becomes overcrowded, the old queen leaves with thousands of workers to find a new home. It’s not chaos, it’s one of the most extraordinary natural behaviours on the planet.
“Beekeepers actively manage their colonies to prevent swarming but heatwaves can trigger a ‘nectar tsunami’ that saturates the inside of the beehive with this sweet, sugary solution. This is generally good for bees but if the beekeeper hasn’t provided enough space for this bounty of nectar, it can trigger rapid swarming events, even in urban areas.”
Edwards urges the public not to:
- Panic and cause alarm
- Kill or spray the swarm – it’s not dangerous and it’s not permanent
- Block emergency lines. Beekeepers, not fire services, deal with swarms
What they should do is
- Stay calm. Don’t run, don’t swat, don’t spray. ENJOY. It’s truly magical!
- Keep your distance. Observe from afar. Take a picture, if you can safely do so, to send to a beekeeper
- Call a local beekeeper, not pest control. Swarms can usually be safely collected within hours. You can find your local beekeeper here: https://www.bbka.org.uk/find-a-local-swarm-collector
