Why bees swarm and what you should – and shouldn't – do when you come across a colony on the move

A huge, chaotic whirl of bees hanging on a branch or piled on the ground may naturally give you cause for alarm. "They will usually come out as a cloud of bees and they will form a clump on a tree or a fence within 30 metres of the hive, and they will consolidate on that one spot," Mr Paterson says. In most cases, Mr Paterson says, bees are docile while they are swarming, as they have a belly full of honey and "they have nothing to defend". "What most people don't understand is bees are the most important species on this planet for the future of mankind," Mr Paterson says. Mr Paterson says if bees were to disappear it would have "consequences beyond comprehension".