During the swarming process - Most of the time we see pictures of swarms hanging on trees, it’s a lot of bees in one place and kind of scary looking:

However, most of the time we don’t really see what it looks like just before the bees settle into the clustre on the tree or just after they have decided to move on.

I’t probably a lot more scary looking and most likely more intimidating than a relatively calm cluster of bees on a tree.  Unfortunately for a friend of mine who had missed the weekly hive inspection, his colony decided to swarm just as we got down to the apiary.  Luckily I managed to capture a picture of what the sky looks like when the bees have decided to move on.

It does look chaotic and quite scary, but it is quite fascinating:

I suppose the good thing is that the commotion does die down quite quick (about 10-15 mins) and peace is restored.  It is also quite interesting to note the reaction of any animals close by, they do make themselves very scarce from the scene!!