Why Do Honey Bees Swarm What To Know & Who You Can Call
The sight of swarming bees can certainly unnerve some people. However, it is a very natural and wonderful part of the life cycle of honey bees. The honey bee colony has survived a cool winter. There are fewer bees in the colony than there were during the summer – the honey bee queen, and perhaps 10,000 to 20,000 workers, all huddled together in a winter cluster. To keep warm. There are no drones. Any remaining drones got the elbow at the end of summer, in order to conserve food resources!
As the weather warms up, the colony expands. More workers are produced. The honey bee colony is a super-organism - a closely co-operating unit of thousands of individuals, which maintains its efficiency through being extremely well organized. There may be 50,000 workers busily foraging, regulating the temperature in the hive, guarding the colony or tending to the brood, as well as feeding each other, cleaning, creating wax, comb and honey. The queen is busy laying, producing more workers, and finally drones.
Throughout all this activity, something else very important is happening: communication through pheromones. Bee pheromones are produced by workers, drones and the queen. The pheromone is passed on through ‘food sharing’ – the members of the colony feed each other, thereby transmitting the pheromone. So, in the act of feeding, the bees are also communicating with each other. This is known as trophallaxis. The queen honey bee produces the queen pheromone. This pheromone attracts the workers to her, and encourages them to build the comb, forage, and tend the brood. The whole colony knows it must have a queen for its continued survival, so the honey bee queen plays a very important role, as do drones, which mate with queens to ensure future generations.
There is only one honey bee queen, and there are now thousands and thousands of workers. There comes a point when the crowd is so great, that not all of the workers have access to the queen. They are no longer receiving her pheromone signals, the hive is crowded and so for them, she is non-existent! This induces within these workers the need to create a new honey bee queen.
Before the new queen emerges, the old queen takes off with part of the colony to establish a new nest, but before leaving their original colony, all of the bees will fill themselves up on nectar. Once the swarm has left its old nest or hive, this is when we might see a whirling mass of swarming bees in the air, or a bee swarm settled on the branch of a tree. They are focused on finding a new nest, not on attacking. That said, it is important to keep your distance from swarming bees, because if the bees feel threatened, then it is possible they will sting. A swarm may stay around for a few days, depending on how quickly the scout bees find a suitable new home. This could happen very quickly, even within a day.
You can enjoy watching the Bees and let nature take its course or call a local beekeeper as most are happy to capture a swarm and give it a new home. Most county Ag extension agencies have a list of beekeepers who will come take the swarm as do local police departments.
Werning Apiaries
Pure Raw Wisconsin Honey