I was working from home today in the garden when suddenly!!! Cacophony!! I couldn’t believe it when I looked up and saw a huge ball of bees, pouring from their hive and filling the air!! They made an almost perfect sphere, and the noise was intense and so so loud.
Swarming is the natural means of reproduction of honey bee colonies (considering the colony as the organism rather than individual bees which cannot survive alone), including the domesticated Western honey bee. In the process two or more colonies are created in place of the original single colony. The first or prime swarm generally goes with the old queen. As soon as the swarm is established as a new colony, the bees raise a new queen, or sometimes a replacement virgin queen is already present in the swarm. Afterswarms are usually smaller and are accompanied by one or more virgin queens. Sometimes a beehive will swarm in succession until it is almost totally depleted of workers.
Swarming is mainly a spring phenomenon, usually within a two- or three-week period, the usual period depending on the locale. But occasional swarms can happen throughout the producing season. Old fashioned laissez-faire beekeeping depended upon the capture of swarms to replenish beekeeper colonies and early swarms were especially valued. An old English ditty says:
A swarm of bees in May is worth a load of hay;
A swarm of bees in June is worth a silver spoon;
A swarm of bees in July isn’t worth a fly.
When honey bees swarm from the hive they do not fly far at first. They may gather in a tree or on a branch only a few meters from the hive. There, they cluster about the queen and send scout bees out to find a final location. From this first rest stop, a swarm may fly for a kilometer or more to the scouted out location.
Luckily, Ruby came home just as they were settling (picture me running upstairs yelling “THE BEES ARE SWARMING!! THE BEES ARE SWARMING!!!”) and put on her bee suit and swept them up into a bucket and got the queen into a new hive! They are happily settled in and seem to be doing ok, so, crisis of lost-bees averted! Yay Ruby! I only got stung twice, so that’s pretty amazing. Eeek!
Here is the settled swarm after most have been scooped into the new hive. These bees followed the queen into the hive eventually.
It was such a crazy and powerful thing to witness, I’m glad I was home, and that home is this pretty garden with many wonders!
Angeliska
10 months ago
!!! Oh !!!
So amazing!
I need to start my hives soon! There is so much to learn.. I can’t wait..
xoxoo,
A.
verhext
10 months ago
Yes! She has 5 now with this new one, and will probably sell one or 2. Insane! The new swarm is considered healthy, though, I guess? The power-bees. It is so interesting!
Tanya
10 months ago
We have a small hive of bees living underneath a pipe, outside of our bathroom window. They’ve been there for a few years. I have no idea what we can do about them. They don’t really come into the house, unless it’s night time and someone has left a light on, with the window open. They are drawn to the light and one or two stray bees will fly in, lost and frantic. I would feel more comfortable not having them right outside the bathroom, but so far nobody has been stung and they just… hang out. I wonder if some place like PETA extends its care for animals to insects, and could come to collect these bees and take them somewhere out to nature or something.
Emma
10 months ago
We had a swarm in our back garden once when I was little. They went into one of our apple trees too. We called a beekeeper from the the village and he came along armed only with a cardboard box. Somehow he got them all in there, drove them home and set them up in their new hive. We used to go and visit them and got honey from them all the time!
verhext
10 months ago
Tanya – a beekeeper will probably happily take them off your hands!!
Violet Folklore
10 months ago
Hey lady,
I am so looking forward to catching up with your blog, but on this busy morning I will just respond to your comment on ours- I just listed the red Gunne, and it is a size 7. I know, too small for me too, I need the 9s. The jeans will be listed tomorrow or Wednesday! If you want us to reserve them just so no one snags them before you see them, with no commitment to buy on your part if the measurements aren’t right, let us know!
~Amber