As a beekeeper I get phone calls from concerned homeowners when they find that there is a football-sized mass of bees
hanging on a branch over their yard where their children play. I am happy to get these calls for several reasons.
First I get to help people who are frightened and ease their fears. I get to educate the homeowners on the importance
of honey bees and how swarming is a part of their natural life cycle. Finally I get to save a colony of bees from possible
disaster, and I get a free colony of bees for my apiary.
Honey bees most frequently swarm between the months of April and July. It is their natural way of increasing their
population. The reason honey bees swarm is because their colony has been successful in using all the room it has to
store honey, pollen and brood (soon to be bees).
When crowding becomes an issue to the colony the worker bees will
create queen cells where the larva within are fed a special food known as royal jelly. The nutrients in royal jelly
create a larger bee that is capable of laying around 2000 to 3000 eggs per day. This large bee is the queen and she
is the director of all activities in the hive.
Before the new queen hatches, her mother, the older queen releases a swarming scent that attracts half of bees in the
colony. These bees gorge themselves on honey since their new home will not have honey waiting for them when they arrive.
They all leave the hive in mass and find a place to gather nearby, usually on a branch. The football sized mass you see
on the branch has the queen at the center. Her workers keep her safe and warm while they are in transit.
As the bees hang in the cluster, scout bees come and go in search for a new home. They may find a home in an old bird
house, in a hollow tree or in the walls of your house. If they do not find a suitable home the cluster will die.
The honey bees are relatively easy to handle while in this cluster. They are not aggressive because they have nothing
to defend; no hive, no brood and no honey stores.
I have heard of people spraying insecticides on swarms, killing
20,000 bees at once without resistance. Had a colony like this been rescued by a beekeeper it could have pollinated
millions of plants and produced up to 50 pounds of surplus honey.
This is why it is important to call a beekeeper to come and take the swarm.
Another reason is that if bees take up
residence in the walls of your house, getting rid of them will become a major expensive problem to solve in the future.
If they are sprayed and killed in the wall the smell of decaying brood and fermenting unripened honey will come into
your house and will possibly stain your interior walls. You will need to hire a licensed contractor and a beekeeper or
exterminator. The contractor will need to remove or cut through the siding and open the wall. All the bees and comb
will need to be removed and the wall will need to be replace and sealed so no other colonies can reenter your building.
Honey bees have a lot going against them. If not for the beekeepers they would be extinct in North America today. Like
other livestock, honey bees are prey to mites and bacterial infection. Beekeepers use antibiotics and other medications
to keep their colonies healthy. A colony in the wild can rarely survive the first year. When they die another swarm may
be attracted to their wild hive by the smells left behind. That new colony is doomed as well.
It is also important to understand the difference between honey bees and yellow jackets. Anytime someone is stung they
usually call it a "bee sting", which is rarely the case. Honey bees usually give you a warning before they sting. They
will bump you a couple of times, and if you don't back off; you may get stung.
Yellow jackets are much more aggressive. They sting with little provocation and they can sting repeatedly. When a honey
bee stings, its stinger is left at the site and the bee dies in the process.
Yellow jackets have distinct yellow and black banding on their abdomens, while honeybees banding look more like different
tones of brown. Yellow jackets live in paper nests. They also can live in the ground or in the walls of a house. Unlike
the honey bee, yellow jacket will use a nest site only once. The only member of the hive that survives the winter is a
mated queen who moves under ground and emerges in the spring to start a new colony.
If yellow jackets are a problem one can hire an exterminator or try yellow jacket traps that can be purchased at hardware,
garden and feed stores.
However if you find a swarm of honey bees, please call a beekeeper. Beekeepers are happy to capture swarms and give them
good homes. Click Here to return to the "Swarm Call" page.
