Hello Everyone,
I guess it’s been over a week since my last post and I should really get into the swing of things again as I’m out of practice. Fortunately, I’ve pretty much kept you all up to date this past week on my social media pages. In short there were two big events:
1) I drove to Liverpool to meet up with a fellow beekeeper called Andrea (http://www.b4biodiversity.co.uk/) who had offered to give me a free virgin queen as Hive Steph had suddenly become queenless for some unknown reason. She showed me around and was generally just an awesome person so please add her on your social media pages and visit her shop. She’s good people =)
2) I collected a swarm for the next-door neighbour of one of my work colleagues. There was a bit of a crowd who were asking questions about what was going on and when I posted about it on some local Facebook pages I received a lot of questions about swarms there too.
I also got a bunch of new followers too so "Hello Newbees!"
I’ve decided to make this blog post about bee swarms to hopefully inform you all on this strange habit of bees and hopefully calm any worries you have about them. I’ve answered all of the questions I received by message or comments with on the social media posts below to the best of my ability:
What is a swarm?
A swarm of bees (generally speaking) is a
bundle of honeybees huddling together, trying not to get lost from each other. There is usually a queen bee somewhere in the middle of the bundle being kept safe and protected from predators and the weather. Most of the bees are older forager worker bees (12+ days old) but there are also some drones that tag along for the ride too for some reason, even though they don’t really do a right lot. Younger (Nurse) bees that have just emerged are usually not developed enough to fly so are sadly left behind in the original hive; don’t worry though they have their own jobs in all of this and are perfectly fine. Generally, half of the bees fly off with the queen, leaving half of the colony behind in the original hive.
Why do honeybees swarm?
Honeybees are the only type of bee that swarms in the world. This is why if I get a call about bees, I ask the caller to describe the “swarm” to me as its pretty easy to identify what the Genus is (bumblebees, solitary, honeybees etc). Surprising amounts of calls (as in 90%) are about bumblebee nests.
Honeybees swarm naturally as a process of colony reproduction. The main triggers to cause the bees to swarm is an abundance of food or cramped conditions. The older bees who go out collecting nectar and pollen are actually the ones who decide to start the swarming process when they are struggling to find somewhere to store their goods. I’m not quite sure how they tell the other bees to start the preparations, but other workers in the hive start making Queen Cups on the comb and then start bullying the queen to lay in them.
Queen Cups are little beeswax cups that are drawn vertically rather than the normal horizontal comb. They look like a little acorn hat (cupule) stuck on the honeycomb.
Once an egg has been laid in the cup the poor adult queen is left alone and the bees start feeding up the larva with pure royal jelly, making it into a new (“Juicy”) Queen bee. As the larva grows in size the workers elongate the cup to ensure it is well protected. The “Queen Cup” once it has an egg laid in it is now called a “Charged Queen Cell” or “Swarm Cell”. It takes seven days for a larva to receive all of the food it needs to grow into the most important bee in the colony. After the seventh day the nurse bees cap the cell, sealing it up so the grub can go through a metamorphosis. It’s at this point the bees swarm.
The colony splits almost exactly in half and the older queen flies off with the flying bees as a massive swarm. This is called a Prime Swarm and something all beekeepers dream of collecting, as it is the biggest swarm you can get and has a mated queen amongst it. These swarms can generally produce an excess of honey in the same year, which is awesome.
The other type of swarm is called a Caste Swarm which is considerably smaller. When the swarm instinct triggered the bees (tend to) make more than one Swarm Cell. According to the books the first queen to emerge crawls out of the cell and stomps around the hive making “tooting” noises trying to find any other queens. If she finds another queen then she fights them to the death until there is only one queen left, who will take over the colony. Any queen cells that haven’t emerged are stung by the queen and then torn down by the worker bees. This virgin queen goes out and mates to create a complete colony. That is what the books say….
More often than not a new queen will emerge and then fly off in another swarm, taking yet another half of the remaining colony. This is what is called a Caste Swarm and what the majority of swarms us beekeepers collect. A good beekeeper, worth their salt, will never turn their nose up at collecting a swarm of any kind, but some of the bad ones ignore Castes as they are small, need help building up before winter by feeding them and the queen is a virgin meaning that she needs to go out and mate before the hive will be a complete colony. The mating flight of queen bees is incredibly dangerous and only has a 70% success rate, meaning that if the queen doesn’t come back then the swarm is as good as dead due to having no brood to produce another queen. This is why a good beekeeper will ALWAYS collect a swarm if they are able to, as we don’t want any colony to die out. Unfortunately, a colony can continue to swarm and swarm until there are too few bees left in the original colony to survive, so we all hope that the bees eventually relent to what the books say.
Where do swarms go if not collected?
In short, there’s no way to tell where a swarm will go once it flies off from the stump or tree branch it’s hanging on. When a swarm finds a congregation point it sends out scout bees to find them a new home to start a hive. These bees fly off looking for any nook and cranny they can fit into to see if there is a cavity of ideal size for the swarm to fit in. This can be literally anywhere and anything from a hollowed out tree stump to the petrol tank of a broken down car left to corrode in the woods (long story). Once the scout bees find a decent place they fly back to the swarm and let the others know. I’m not sure how they decide on which of the scout bees to follow but once a new home is decided the whole swarm will take off at the same time in a flurry of activity and fly off as one.
This is another reason that it is important that a beekeeper is called to collect them as bees are not the best at choosing spots that won’t cause a conflict with us humans. They seem to love chimneys, porch rooves, garden sheds, etc. and once they have made their home in one of these places specialists need to be called in to do something called a “Cut out” where they break open the wall or whatever and remove the bees and comb. Its messy and very expensive work (for the household owner) so it’s much better for us to get the bees before this happens.
(https://www.cbsnews.com/news/120000-bees-6-foot-long-honeycomb-found-in-womans-ceiling/)
When will I see a swarm?
Swarm season (as it’s called) starts early April and ends in late September. Bees tend to swarm at any point during this window BUT swarms tend to occur around the nectar flows in their local area; so if you live around me in the St Helens area then you’ll mostly see them mid-April to early May or July to August. Its more likely that you will hear a swarm before you see it as there will be over a thousand bees beating their wings at the same time making a loud buzzing noise. My work colleague said that he thought his neighbour was hoovering outside somewhere before he spotted it in the shrub.
Are swarms dangerous?
Honeybee swarms are extremely docile. Every bee in the swarm is completely focussing on trying not to get separated from the queen. It is very rare that anyone will get stung by a bee in the swarm and you can get quite close to them without any issue as long as you don’t mind the bussing around you. There is a chance they will get stuck in your hair which could lead to a sting due to panicking but other than that they are harmless.
I hear you wondering “Greg, if they’re so docile then why do you wear a beesuit to collect them?” The answer to that is that I’m an absolute clutz and in all the manoeuvring of the bees into a collection vessel (Nuc box) I may accidentally trap a bee in the fold of fabric in my shirt etc where they’ll panic and sting. Also they like to wiggle their way into dark holes and if I have a builders bum from bending over too much… well… no bee should have to deal with crawling into that…
What should I do if I see a swarm?
Call (07825292679) or message (Facebook or Instagram) me.
Even if it isn’t actually a swarm and it’s just a bumblebee nest in your gutter space or something, I’m always happy to talk to anyone about bees. In fact, I spent most of June driving to people’s houses and confirming that there were bumblebees in their rooves or birdboxes and what they can do about them.
If I collect a swarm that you contacted me about then you can name the queen and I’ll announce it to the world. Speaking of which…
Everyone say hello to “Wembeeley” the Virgin queen I collected from Eccleston in Mike Toole’s front garden.
Hope you’re all safe and well,
Greg
