Raining bee poo

First a heard an excess of buzzing in the garden, then smelt honey and then saw rain glistening against the clear blue sky. A swarm was leaving, the smell was honey from the bee poo raining from the outer edges of the swarm. I've never seen or smelt that before.

The swarming season should have finished be now, but in my deliberately cramped nucleus hive the bees hadhad enough of the congestion this lunchtime and decided that it's time for half of them to leave. They might have had the decency to poo outside the garden instead of over the washing and the bikes.