This morning I found a swarm in my garden, even though bees are a regular sight in our area, I personally haven't had them this close.
according to an article I found form 2010, this is when they are at their most docile, as this is when their only attention is on defending the queen and finding a new home, as they do apparently split the hive for various reasons, one possibly being the colony has out grown the hive. As spring has just started I think this the likely reason.
yes, the queen is somewhere in there, most likely left the hive with half the workforce. These guys must have been a bit cold as we had some rain trough the night
this swarm would have left the old hive with about 6 queen larvae to mature there, for one to end up ruling the hive. Amazing how they work together
Shortly afterwards they exploded into flight, I almost crapped myself....
here is a link to the full article I found from 2010....
http://thelazybfarm.com/why-do-honeybees-swarm
