Grounded swarm of bees create a buzz in Lutterworth

The bees would not stray away from their queen who had died and fallen to the ground. Picture by Sara Poultney.

A local beekeeper came to the rescue after a grounded swarm of bees in Lutterworth sparked concern among residents.

Hundreds of honeybees were seen swarming on the ground for around four days after their queen had died near St Mary’s churchyard.

After seeking advice on Facebook, a resident managed to get hold of amateur beekeeper Dr Jolyon White who lives in the nearby town of Croft.

Dr Jolyon White came to the rescue of the grounded bees.

The beekeeper, a science tutor by trade, said it was an unusual situation where the queen had died, likely on route to create a new colony with her worker bees - whose many roles include caring for the queen - and had fallen to the floor.

He explained: “I’m not sure why the queen died, she was quite small so she was possibly weak and died from exhaustion.

“I think there was between 200 and 300 bees. They would have certainly died if they’d have been left. They would have probably stayed a week or two and been eaten by birds or else starved.”

Dr White, who, with his wife Yvette, produces his own brand ‘Educated Honey’, transported the bees to combine them with one of his own colonies – of which he has around 16 comprising of some 30,000 bees each.

He explained how he collected the bees.

“They went in quite easily as the skep [a basket-like container for collecting bees] was sheltered and dark, and the bees were pretty demoralised and unhappy on the ground. And once I’d put the corpse of the Queen in there, it was relatively simple.”

He then left the skep all day to ensure all the bees, including those still flying about, would gather inside before he returned to close it and take it back to his apiary.

He added: “The people in Lutterworth were very calm and they weren’t panicked which says a lot. I’m pleased I was able to help rescue the bees.”

Honeybee colonies have a single queen while every bee in the colony is her offspring.

Worker bees are infertile females who care for the queen and her larvae. To produce queens, they feed larvae on an exclusive diet of royal jelly secreted from their glands.