France in Focus

Sitting under a very large lime-tree, in the shade, in full bloom and the sound of silence and buzzing bees. Where do they all come from? During our absence they thought: we are better bricoleurs than you Robert. Look what we have made, behind the volets of your bathroom upstairs. Waiting for an apiculteur to arrive.

Yikes! Nice swarm for a local beekeeper though!

Perfect place for bees : lots of flowers, and a nice warm dark roost behind the shutters !

Shutters facing south, they must have had
a feuille de route (Michelin?)

Luckily hidden from a passing hawk!

Their urine is highly regarded in the automotive industry.

Bayleaf wrote: ↑Tue Jul 09, 2024 3:59 pm Yikes! Nice swarm for a local beekeeper though!

Possibly not.

A swarm in May is worth a load of hay.

A swarm in June is worth a silver spoon.

A swarm in July isn’t worth a fly.


A swarm caught early in the year will repay the beekeeper with honey, but a swarm caught in July will probably produce no honey to spare and may even need feeding in late autumn to give it the resources to survive the winter.

Good Lord !! That's downright scary !! And I thought the returning bats nesting behind the volets were annoying..

"A swarm caught early in the year will repay the beekeeper with honey, but a swarm caught in July will probably produce no honey to spare and may even need feeding in late autumn to give it the resources to survive the winter."
Which gives rise to the old saying:

"A swarm in May is worth a load of hay; a swarm in June is worth a silver spoon; but a swarm in July is not worth a fly,"

Indeed it does @demi - if you look back to the start of the post you quoted.