"David in Normandy" wrote in message
r...
On 19/06/2012 20:16, Chris Hogg wrote:
On Tue, 19 Jun 2012 19:30:32 +0200, David in Normandy
wrote:

While sitting outside this afternoon my attention was caught by an
intense buzzing sound. Looking up I saw a cloud around 50 feet diameter
and twenty feet off the ground move close to our house then drift off
over the lawn then it moved off into the distance across a field. The
cloud must have consisted of thousands of buzzing individuals. I
couldn't see what insect it was - it was literally a huge buzzing cloud
of dots. Bees or what? I've never seen anything like it in my life in
all my years of rural living. I didn't think bees made such huge swarm
clouds?

Sounds like a large primary swarm of bees. Bear in mind that June is
the month when bees are most likely to swarm, and a large colony may
contain some 50,000 bees half of which may debunk in the first
(primary) swarm.


So it was bees then! I wouldn't have liked to be in the middle of that
cloud, it looked quite intimidating!

Do you know the rhyme "A swarm of bees in May is worth a load of hay, a
swarm of bees in June is worth a silver spoon, a swarm of bees in July isn't
worth a fly" ?
Keeping bees is very hard work - stopping them swarming needs the hive
examining often for queen cells. IIRC.
As I am not that fond of honey, I prefer to buy mine..

Tina