AS A SWARM of bees travelled through Midleton, Co Cork today, local Sharon O’Shea took some pictures out of the window of Brosnan’s Pharmacy.
“I first noticed the swarm all over the Main Street at around 3 o’clock – they covered the whole road,” she told TheJournal.ie.
After a while, the swarm gathered around a hanging basket where it’s thought the queen bee was residing.
After that they calmed down, but remained hovering around the basket on the bustling main street.
But Sharon, who was keeping an eye on the situation, said that at around 5pm someone arrived to try and move the bees.
“A guy came to take some [bees] away, which upset the hive again. So they’re angry again now but only half the number as before!” she said.
Pádraic Fogarty, the Irish Wildlife Trust’s Campaigns Officer, says that sightings of huge swarms of bees isn’t unusual for this time of year.
“We’ve had a couple of reports this week from around the country,” he said. “They’re either leaving an old colony, or creating a new one.”
That being said, the people of Midleton still got a shock from the buzzing insects – Sharon says that there was “a little panic” when the swarm initially appeared.
“It’s normal behaviour,” Pádraig said quite seriously, adding that people should “leave them be”.
He said that if people are really concerned about a hive near a busy area, they should contact their local beekeeper, which are listed from all around the country on the Federation of Irish Beekeepers’ Associations’ website.
So if you do spot a swarm of bees while out and about, just know it’s not the apocalypse and – be careful.
To embed this post, copy the code below on your site
have your say