Busy as a bee: Summer swarming season in full swing

Political swarm clouds are gathering over honeybee colonies in Ireland just now. The swarming season has arrived and palace revolutions will erupt over the next two months as hives become crowded

When hives become crowded, the reigning queen, along with half of her worker daughters, departs the ancestral home in a swirling cloud. Picture: iStock

Uneasy lies the head that wears a crown — Henry IV

Marking wild creatures with rings or tags, so as to track them, is a mainstay of wildlife research. But, according to historian Chris Doyle of the University of Galway, our bee-keeping ancestors used a similar technique two millennia ago.