What To Do If You See A Swarm Of Bees
Saturday, May 22, 2010 at 5:30PM 
Every year around this time we start to get emails from people who have a swarm of honey bees in their yard or on their fence or in a tree. In the past they may have just called an exterminator. Now, because of the publicity about Colony Collapse Disorder, they want to avoid killing the bees and just want to find them a new home.
Even so, many people are still under the impression that a swarm of bees is a dangerous thing, ready to sting at the drop of a hat. The opposite is true. Honey bees clustered together in a swarm are surrounding their queen who has left the hive to find a new home, leaving behind a new queen and the remaining bees. This is the way honey bees propagate new colonies and in this day and age, is a very good thing.
A clustered swarm of honey bees is in a holding pattern. They aren't aggressive because they have no honey or young brood to defend. They are waiting for scout bees to come back from searching for a new home.
Before they left the hive with the queen, they all ate a lot of honey to get them through the few days it might take to find new a place to take up residence. They will use the energy from the honey to keep themselves and the queen warm while they wait.
When the scout bees come back, they will transmit the location of the new digs to the rest of the colony and they will all take off, fly around to get their bearings and go on to move in. When the first bees arrive, they will release a pheromone to help the rest of the bees find the new location.
Admittedly, a swarm of flying bees is pretty scary looking but you could stand in the middle of one as I have and not get stung unless you started swatting at them. Sure they will bump into you but they are very purposeful insects and are concentrating on the task at hand.
So, if you see a swarm of honey bees, you can call your local beekeeper to take them away or just let them find their own way in the world.
Reader Comments (7)
Now you have me wondering about where the bee swarm we had in our tree a couple of years ago ended up. And where the swarm came from in the first place because it just appeared on our tree all of a sudden.
I have read differing opinions with regard to swarms, some say the swarm may have an inferior queen or some other problems. Any opinions?
Mr BT,
There are a lot more hollow trees around than you might think.
Liz,
The swarm leaves with the original queen from the hive. If that queen was purchased with a package of bees from a bee breeder, it will most likely have the traits the breeder has advertised. It is the new queen left behind in the hive that is possibly suspect because on her mating flight she will mate with drones in the area which may not carry desirable traits such as mite resistance. Even so that doesn't mean she will be a poor queen. It just increases the odds that desirable traits will be diluted.
When bees have a poor laying queen or a queen that is disabled in some way, they will go about replacing her themselves by making new queens from certain eggs she lays. This is called supercedure and the first new queen to hatch out will seek out and kill the old queen along with all the unhatched queen cells.
I just purchased two new hives, and upon receipt noticed the hives were in poor shape, that is the woodware. There were no inner covers, the hive boxes were crap, with a piece of wood nailed on top, and one hive was very damp inside because of rain infiltration. So, I ordered new hives to transfer the bees to them. My question is this, these are the nastiest bees ever, they just want to sting you for no reason, can this be caused by the stress they were under previous to my purchase of them? Do you think they will calm down once in their new homes? Or do you think I am just crazy for asking?
Liz,
They could be stressed. I'm wary of purchasing bees along with used equipment because you can't be sure of the practices of the beekeeper who owned them or of diseases that might linger in the woodenware. Also the beekeeper you bought them from should have let you inspect the hives before you bought them so that you could see for yourself how healthy the hives were.
Transfer them to the new boxes and let them settle down for a few days. Watch the flight pattern at the entrance. If the bees are bringing in a lot of pollen and are coming and going steadily you can probably go ahead and do an inspection. Once there is a good nectar flow the bees will probably forget you are there.
Sydney,
Thanks for your comments. I purchased the hives through the Association I belong to, they passed the NJ bee inspector, so I am pretty sure I have healthy bees, its the temperment I am worried about. I am swapping them over to new hive boxes and leaving them alone for a few weeks. They are good workers, coming home daily with lots of pollen, just nasty bees, (maybe the honey will be extra sweet.)