I left the house to walk Tito with the two kids in tow yesterday afternoon and headed to the coast. A man at the head of the track I wanted to take waved me off from a distance. I recognised him as the ‘cat walker’ and presumed he didn’t want my huge Presa anywhere near his precious puss.

That was fine. He was leaving the area anyway so I just waited far enough away for him to collect his cat and wander off up the road and then we all carried on to the rocky coastal path. With my attention on Tito, I had almost walked into a swarm of bees before I noticed it. Maybe that was what Cat Man had been waving about?

There were so many bees that I could feel the buzzing in my sternum. Or maybe that was my heart pounding. I’m not usually a big fearty but I didn’t fancy attracting the attention of this lot.
Even after we’d past the main mass of bees we were passing stragglers (or scouts?) for ages and they all seemed to be frantic about something.

‘Imagine if this was Tom and Jerry,’ Sami said, ‘…they’d whistle for the rest of the swamp.’

I didn’t actually hang about long enough to get a good look at the insects so have no idea if they were honey bees or indeed bees at all. While Tenerife produces excellent award-winning honey and there were a couple of hives on spare ground at the village at one point, most of the apiculture tends to be done much higher up where the pollen-rich broom grows.

Lastly, after my little bee experience with the kids, I poked around on the internet (as you do) just to find out a bit more about bee swarms. I found a little fact sheet which includes the sage advice: Get away from bees as quickly as possible. Oh. Okay then.

For more information about Tenerife honey visit the Casa de Miel .

photo credit:
fussball_89