Construction workers and Uptowne Olds businesses got a taste of nature at work when a bee swarm descended on a construction fence “road closed” sign at 50 Avenue and 51 Street Tuesday, Aug. 12.The swarm was spotted by people in various Uptowne businesses last Tuesday afternoon.Diane Uphill of Stevens Jewellers was among those who spotted the swarm. She told her husband Howard Uphill of Prairie Post Frame about it.Howard says she told him the swarm was massive as it flew toward the sign.“She said it was huge when it came in, like 10 or 20 feet across,” Uphill says.However, Diane said it was about two feet across.“It was nice and big,” she says.Shirley Kulik of Jensen's Men's Wear phoned beekeeper David Hingst after a fellow employee spotted the swarm while walking across the avenue to get soup.Hingst was unable to deal with the swarm because he was working up north, but his wife Barb and son Wesley came out, complete in protective suits. They gathered up the queen and hive in boxes and took them to land out of town where Hingst has other hives. He says that brings his collection now to 11 hives.The swarm extended down about two to three feet from the top of the sign and maybe six to eight inches wide. Hingst says that's not the largest swarm he's ever dealt with.“I've got some that are eight feet across,” he says.Hingst says swarms occur when a bee colony gets too crowded. Sometimes the existing queen takes off and brings most of the colony with her. Other times a new queen is created, and perhaps a third of the colony moves with it.Hingst was happy to get the swarm. Beekeepers around the world, including in Central Alberta, have had problems with huge numbers of bees dying off. Like many beekeepers, Hingst suspects that die-off is a result of chemical spraying by farmers. But so far, that link hasn't been definitively proven, critics say.
