May to June is typically the time when bees will start swarming and it's probably the most exciting time in a beekeeper's year.
Swarming is the process by which a new honey bee colony is formed when the queen bee leaves the colony with a large group of worker bees. In the prime swarm, about 60% of the worker bees leave the original hive location with the old queen. (wikipedia)
And so it happened to me a few days ago. I came out to check on the girls and heard the buzzing in the air. The bees were swarming. Here are some pictures:
the swarm is collecting on the outside of the hive
the air is buzzing like crazy
there are bees everywhere
the swarm soon migrates into a nearby bush
time to prepare a hive box...
...and set a ladder in place
the swarm has landed
carefully clip some branches out of the way
and then just quickly shake them off into a bucket
and finally empty the bucket into the prepared hive box
What an exciting day!
edited: emoji in title; formatting