Swarm of Bees on the Move

In my last post, I mentioned that our swarm had fallen to the ground when the tree-limb broke.  At the time, the bees were very active, but as the swarm came into the sunshine I just had to go and shoot the scene.  ...cautiously.

Here's the fallen branch with the fairly quiet swarm in the middle of the picture, about 3 inches off the ground.  The time is: 10:53:04 am.

Here's a closer view at 10:53:39  There are a few bees stirring, but not very many.

At 10:56:43, a little over 3 minutes later, the bees are getting really excited.

Almost a minute later, at 10:57:33, almost all the bees are flying!

This was at 10:58:59, a view overhead.

The next shot is of the empty area where the swarm had been; only a few stragglers remain. It's now 10:59:59, only 7 minutes from the first picture above.

The bees flew over our building, and started to get together on these pillars across the street.  It's now 11:00:57.

At 11:01:27 they already have a good nucleus to build up their swarm again.

This staircase is much like ours since we are on the second floor.  Could you imagine trying to leave your flat at now?  It's 11:02:37

It's now 11:04:47 and most of the bees are back in place.  About a half hour later, there were only a few dozen bees still flying around.

What an amazing sight!  A little over 11 minutes to move from a fallen branch, over our building and establish across the street on a solid pillar.  I don't think any bees were injured, and no one was stung.  What fun!