Sydney abuzz as swarms of bees fuelled by humid spring weather invade city
Warmer nights and recent heavy rains have meant that large swarms of bees are on the rise in Sydney, according to Beekeeper Sydney manager Walhan Halloum.
Although the spring season in the harbour city is a beautiful time of year that sees the harbour lined with yachts, the beaches buzzing with visitors and the city’s parklands bursting with green grass and vibrant blooming flowers, the humid weather also attracts this different kind of buzz.
“Over the last few years, there was a dip in bee swarms because the right amount of rain was not falling at the right time of year,” he told Xinhua news agency on Tuesday.
“Last year, it was still cold in October, but this year’s conditions for bees have been perfect. It’s also great weather for the flowers as well, which means there are perfect nutrients for a bee swarm to relocate.”
As a result, Halloum said he had been “flat out” responding to calls for help from sydneysiders inundated with bees.
“We’ve been called out to remove swarms from schools, homes, businesses, factories, you name it ... I’ve even been called out to ships,” he added.
But in order to get rid of the bees safely and make sure the buzzing trouble-makers are not harmed, Halloum must follow a complicated set of steps.
“If the bee swarm is in a reachable distance, we place it in a bee hive box and then we relocate them into a hive,” he explained. “But to make sure the bees don’t have any diseases, we have to quarantine them for a few months and when we know the bees are nice and strong, working well and happy in their new home, then we will move them into our hive stock farm.”
While the honey-makers can be disruptive in a major city like Sydney, their role in the environment is crucial, as the creatures pollinate around one third of the world’s food crops.
“Swarming is their natural instinct, this is how they reproduce,” Halloum said. “Every bee hive should let out a few swarms in a year, so they can slowly expand their numbers.”
