Swarm of thousands of bees descends on Pevensey Bay garden

A swarm of bees decided to move in at a Pevensey Bay woman’s garden yesterday (May 21).
Beekeeping experts safely removed the nest of honeybees from under a children's swingBeekeeping experts safely removed the nest of honeybees from under a children's swing
Beekeeping experts safely removed the nest of honeybees from under a children's swing

Thousands of the insects descended on Jane Anscombe’s home and settled underneath her children’s swing.

She said, “I have never seen anything like that. There was a massive swarm.

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“It was a bit scary when they first came down. The children were playing in the garden, then one of them screamed and was shouting ‘bees!’

Pevensey and Westham Community Forest Garden beekeepers came to the rescuePevensey and Westham Community Forest Garden beekeepers came to the rescue
Pevensey and Westham Community Forest Garden beekeepers came to the rescue

“All of a sudden we saw this massive swarm and called them inside.”

The family watched the honey bees for about half an hour as they swept the garden, finally settling beneath the swing.

They called Pevensey and Westham Community Forest Garden beekeepers, who arrived within the hour to take them away.

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Jane said, “They managed to get a few thousand into a box, but there’s still a few hundred loitering in my garden.

“They said they would probably leave in their own time.”

May is peak swarming season for honeybees, according to the beekeepers.

Pevensey and Westham Community Forest Garden posted about the rescue on Facebook, saying, “One of our volunteer bee guardians rushed over and successfully transferred the swarm from the swing to a spare hive in our forest garden.

“Luckily the swarm was close to the ground and therefore quite easy to collect. Hopefully it will settle into our hive and start to enjoy the abundant forage in our forest garden.”

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It comes after a large swarm of bees were spotted at Sovereign Harbour earlier this week.

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