Clearly, devotion knows no limits between a queen bee and her loyal subjects.
Carol Howarth had no idea that when she parked her car in the town of Haverfordwest, Wales, chaos would ensue. As it turns out, a queen bee was attracted to the vehicle and accidentally got caught.
As a result, a swarm of 20,000 bees began hovering near the car as Howarth ran errands. The sight attracted the attention of a local man named Tom Moses, who was concerned that the bees would be poorly handled. (After all, bees’ numbers are on the decline thanks to the toxic effects of glyphosate-containing herbicides) For this reason, he called in a team of beekeepers.
Moses told the press:
“It was spectacular. I was driving through when I spotted the big brown splodge. A lot of people were really amazed by it, cars were slowing down and people were taking pictures of it.”
“I was a little bit concerned, with it being in the middle of town outside a pub, that someone might do something stupid and get hurt or do something stupid and hurt the bees,” he added.
The beekeepers’ efforts helped calm down the hive, so spectators figured the situation was resolved. But nothing could have been farther from the truth.
Carol relayed that the swarm kept her vehicle in their sights and managed to track her down.
Credit: The Telegraph
“The next day I realized that some of the bees had followed me home,” she said. To ward off the unwelcome visitors, she contacted the beekeepers again.
“We think the queen bee had been attracted to something in the car, perhaps something sweet, and had got into a gap on the boot’s wiper blade or perhaps the hinge. The swarm of around 20,000 had followed her and were sat around on the boot of the car,” said Roger Burns of Pembrokeshire Beekeepers.
Treehugger reports that in the end, the kidnapped queen bee and her subjects were safely reunited.
Many agreed that the sight was one of the strangest they’ve ever seen. Reportedly, ‘it is natural for [bees] to follow the queen, but it is a strange thing to see and quite surprising to have a car followed for two days.”
It seems devotion knows no bounds between a queen bee and her loyal followers. If you had hesitation believing nature is miraculous, this will surely change your opinion.
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it over the top,if you can forgive the pun.
It could all have been sorted by just one experienced beekeeper using an open cardboard box placed over them and gently smoking them into it with a smoker.
I have done this many times in many situations and it is a joy to see them get the message and pour up into the dark space above.
My understanding about bee swarms is: When a younger and stronger queen bee gets kicks out (from the hive) an older and weaker queen bee. This leaves the older queen bee and all her minions homeless. They leave in a swarm and look for a new home (following their queen).