Updated: 28th February 2023
The sight of swarming bees can certainly be unnerving for somepeople. However, it is a very natural and wonderful part of the lifecycle of honey bees.
If you are looking for advice on bee swarm removal,there is a link at the bottom of this page, however, you'll certainlybenefit from reading about this subject first, so do read on.
Of course, if you read my page about the honey bee queen, you will already have seen my short paragraph on swarming bees. Here, I provide more detail.
All about swarming bees
Honey bee swarm hanging from a tree branch.
Okay, so picture this: the honey bee colonyhas survived a cool winter. There are now fewer bees in the colony thanthere were during the summer – just the honey bee queen, and perhaps 10,000to 20,000 workers, all huddled together in a 'winter cluster' to keep warm.
There are nodrones – any remaining drones got the elbow at the end of summer, in order to conservefood resources!
If the bees live in a hive, thenhopefully they had a kind beekeeper who ensured they would have enoughof their own honey, full of nutrients and goodness, to sustain them.
Asthe 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 wellorganized.
There may be 50,000 workers performing a variety of jobs: busily foraging, regulating thetemperature in the hive, guarding the colony or tending to the brood,as well as feeding each other, cleaning, creating wax, comb and honey.
Meanwhile, the queen is busy laying, producing moreworkers, 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 transferring of food from one bee to another is known as‘trophallaxis’ and also occurs in other social insects.
Thequeen honey beeproduces the‘queen pheromone’. This pheromone attracts the workers to her, and encourages them to build the comb, forage, and tend the brood.
But now back to the honey bee colony.
There is only one honey bee queen, and there are now thousandsand thousands of workers. There comes a point when the crowd is sogreat, that not all of the workers have access to the queen. They areno longer receiving her pheromone signals, and so for them, she isnon-existent!
This induces within these workers the need to create a new honeybee queen. If you’d like to know how queens are made, see my page about thequeen honey bee.
Soon, we shall have a swarm of bees! Why?
There is no space in the colony for more than one queen.
Before the newqueen emerges, the old queen takes off with part of the colony toestablish a new nest, but before leaving their original colony, all ofthe honey bees will fill themselves up on nectar.
Once the swarm has left itsold nest or hive, this is when we might see a whirling mass ofswarming bees in the air, or a bee swarm settled on the branch of a tree(or possibly somewhere not so convenient!).
Why do they rest or fly around in a clump?
The reason a beeswarm looks like a clump of honey bees, is because all of the workers aregathered around the queen, hence forming a clump.
However,the queen is not the strongest of flyers, and so inevitably will need torest at some point – perhaps on a branch, post or fence.
Meanwhile,‘Scout bees’ will be sent out to look for a suitable new place for thecolony to live.
Upon finding possible sites, the scouts will return back to the the swarm and perform a waggle dance to tell other colony members about the location of the site.
Eventually, the whole swarm will go through a kind of democratic process in which the members of the colony decide which location would be best.
The swarm is then, arguably an excellent example of collective intelligence in the animal kingdom (or we could call it the hive mind).
Author of Honey Bee Democracy andThe Lives Of Bees-Thomas D. Seeleynotes:
"....the 1.5 kilograms (3 pounds) of bees in a honeybee swarm, justlike the 1.5 kilograms (3 pounds) of neurons in a human brain, achieve their collectivewisdom by organizing themselves in such a way that even though each individualhas limited information and limited intelligence, the group as a whole makesfirst-rate collective decisions."
Are swarms dangerous?
They are focused on finding anew nest, not on attacking humans. That said, it is important to keep yourdistance from swarming bees, because if the bees feel threatened, thenit is possible they will sting.
A swarm may stay around fora few days, depending on how quickly the scout bees find a suitable newhome. This could happen very quickly, even within a day.
If, however, you come across a bee swarm that really is too inconvenient to tolerate, then firstly:
- Do not attempt to move or destroy the swarm. Such attempts could seriously back fire.
- Follow this link to get free advice onbee swarm removal.
Is it okay to catch bees?
How do bees make honey?
Do Honey Bees Harm Wild Bees?
Is Cactus Honey Made By Bees?
Resources
Books: Honey Bee Democracy andThe Lives Of Beesby Thomas D. Seeley.
Do Honey Bees Poop?
Beautiful Flowering Shrubs That Bees Love
Home page
Pssst ... spread the word!
