Bees create buzz on Soho street - expert moves colony to safe 'hiven'
Published: 23 July 2010
by EMILY STUBBINGS
IT'S the stuff of ‘bee’ movies: a swarm heading through the streets of the West End, scattering shoppers and office workers heading out to get their lunch.
The bizarre sight was spotted on the corner of St Annes Court and Wardour Street on Monday – and the insects stayed put for much of the afternoon until a bee-keeping expert arrived and coaxed the swarm into a box, to be given a new hive of their own.
Bee-keeper Farokh Khorooshi said travelling swarms was a way bee colonies expanded – but such a gathering away from a hive was unusual for mid-July.
He said: “It is a natural phenomenon. The hive moves like this to look after itself.”
He said once a new queen is born in a colony, the workers split the hive in two and go off to find somewhere new to live, leaving one queen behind.
He added: “Every so often a hive produces a new queen, so the old one disappears with half the bees. It is how they extend themselves.
“When the queen lands, the bees swarm around her to keep her safe, as they are doing in this instance. It is a wonderful phenomenon.”
Mr Khorooshi said it was extremely rare to see colonies on the move at this time of year.
He said: “It is quite late in the year for it, which makes this even more unusual.
“The window for swarming is normally May to the middle of June.”