Save The Swarms
So, I was sitting outside with my family yesterday when my husband and I suddenly heard a very loud buzzing sound. We looked up and saw a swarm of bees. I don’t mean one or two bees…I mean a real bona fide swarm of bees. I didn’t stick around to count them one by one, but I guarantee it was in the hundreds.
Of course, we hightailed it out of the yard in a jiffy and continued to watch from the windows as the bees took over our yard. Within about 5 minutes, we could see that they were starting to gather on a pine tree that is both very close to our house and very close to the kids’ play area.
One Google search later, and I’m now ashamed that I ever had such a thought. My husband said it best…it’s an honor to have these bees in our backyard.
For starters, these bees aren’t here to stay. They are actually resting as their scouts head out to find a new home. And this method of swarming is vital to the survival of bees in general.
Most importantly, bees are not very likely to sting while swarming…they are gorged with honey and preoccupied with finding a new home. They are also at their most vulnerable because they don’t have a home and need to conserve energy until they find one.
The whole premise of bee swarming is actually incredibly fascinating. For more details, I contacted bee experts around the country. Jacqueline Freeman of Venersborg, WA teaches students about swarming and other bee behavior at Here’s what she had to say about bee swarms:
“It’s something I WISH people knew more about.
Swarming is what bees do to create a new hive. It’s how they create another bee family.
A hive will swarm when everything in their hive is perfect. There’s plenty of honey, baby eggs laid, pollen is ready to feed the larvae, and the bees have left a few new queens in eggs ready to hatch so there will be a bee-mama ready to start laying more bee eggs. The old hive leaves everything ready for the new hive to grow a strong bee hive. Really, it’s remarkably generous of them, isn’t it?
When the hive swarms, about 2/3 of the bees and the old queen leave, but before they do, each bee gorges herself on honey so she’ll have enough food in her to last the few days it may take to find a new home. A bee in a swarm is full of honey (drunk on honey is what we call it) and very peaceful.
Swarming bees are very unlikely to sting anyone, they’re at their very gentlest, because they 1) have no home to protect, and 2) are too drunk on honey to feel worried. We’ve collected swarms by lifting clusters up with our bare hands. Sadly they are also at their most vulnerable and many get picked off by birds in air, or are harmed by humans who think they are a danger.
Last year I saw a 12 year old boy on the side of a road with a swarm in a bush and he was spraying them with poison to kill them. There was no reason for this. The bees were no danger to anyone where they were. If he’d left them alone, they would have moved on as soon as they found a new home. Instead he killed them, a terrible loss to us all.
The swarm takes off from the hive and finds a tree or bush where they can hang in a cluster. As soon as they’re settled the scout bees take off and look for a new home for them. Each time a scout returns to the swarm with a suggestion, she brings other scout bees with her to see what she thought might make a new home. Good places are anywhere dry and protected, like in an old hollowed out tree or something that resembles that kind of area.
Once the scouts decide on a good location, the news of the new home spreads and the swarm lifts as one and flies to it. A swarm may sit in its temporary location for 20 minutes or they may be there for up to three days (though that’s more unusual). In the meantime the scouts are busy looking until they do.
If a hive doesn’t find a new home within that time, they are in great danger because they are subject to weather, predators or, scared humans finding them and killing them.
I hope you write a good article about this. The more people who know what a swarm is doing — and that a SWARM IS NOT INTERESTED IN HARMING ANYONE — the better. The bees are, as most everyone knows, having a very difficult time right now and the salvation of the bees lies in saving these wild swarms so they can grow stronger.
If someone sees a swarm here’s what to do:
- Leave it alone. The scouts will find a home soon enough and likely within a few hours the whole swarm will be gone.
- Call your neighbors to come see this ever-more-rare occurence. Some worry that in just a few years, bees may die off and there will be no more swarms.
- If the swarm needs to be moved, call a local beekeeping group (look up the county extension service, they’ll know who they are) and someone will come get them. I do this all the time in our area, southwest Washington and the greater Portland OR area.
- Do NOT harm the bees. I tell people to stay ten feet away and just watch. Or stand further away and use binoculars. It’s an amazing thing to see. Good idea to cordon off the area until they move away if the hive is in any danger from people.”
Photo by Don Savedge
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What a great article about a misunderstood issue! Our local county conservation office has a beekeeper on call to help homeowners safely remove bees that decide to build a hive too close to the house. I have called them before when honeybees have swarmed closeby, and they were so helpful.
A little education goes a long way when dealing with bees, and in my opinion, we should be doing everything we can to help them, not kill them.
- Julia at Midwest Moms
Wow, what an interesting post!
I’ll never understand why humans are so intent on killing everything. Especially creatures that are beneficial to us!
We had a honey bee hive in our living room ceiling (between the ceiling and roof) for nearly 8 years. Finally, we grew concerned that the weight of all that hive and honey might start structural damage in our house, so the hive needed to be removed.
How to find a beekeeper? I was at a farmers market and asked a woman with a stall selling honey and beeswax candles! her husband, Mark Small, of “Small Bees,” came over with his apprentices. He had special equipment so he could gently vacuum up the bees, save much of the honeycomb to ensure their food supply, and capture the queen, ensuring the hive’s survival. He took the bees back to his place, where their health was checked. When cured of any parasites, they will find a new home in “organized” boxes in some orchard, and continue to make honey for the farmers market. Mark is also a history teacher and coach, so he educated us about bees while rescuing them.
It is a very messy job! Honey gets everywhere. But one chunk of homeycomb did make it into our kitchen. Nothing like the real thing! The bees, fortunately, just clumped on one window, and got vacuumed up into the transportation boxes. Most lived to make honey again. Maybe 10,000+ bees had access to our home – and no one got stung! Sticky from honey, but not stung.
Most amazing lesson learned: drones really DO drone! The male bees don’t sting, but they make the most scary, loud buzzing compared to the worker bees.
Great tips!
My mother has had to deal with swarms several times and even had a local beekeeper check her house when she thought she might have a hive in the attic. It’s really not that bad, although if you do get a hive indoors the honey can be quite messy and a tough cleanup. Ann, I was so glad to read that the cleanup went so well at your place.
My dad is a beekeeper and I grew up around honey bees. I absolutely love watching them and everything involved in “keeping” them. Some day I’ll have hives of my own again!
Bees are really quite peaceful creatures and only stung when they feel threatened. I swell something terribly when stung and one of my brothers is highly allergic, but that didn’t keep either of us from helping dad with these amazing creatures!
If you have a swarm and the bees get upset by a child or pet, you can start a small fire in a metal bucket or can, using grass and small twigs as fuel. The idea is to make as much smoke as possible. Smoke basically “intoxicates” the bees to a point of sleepy-drunkenness. They will become very calm in a short amount of time.
Thanks for educating people about honey bees! They are so vital to our world, yet often feared and always in danger!
That’s crazy. I never knew much of what you said about the swarm of bees. I have never seen anything like that either. Now I know – who knows maybe one will someday visit my yard and I’ll know what to do! Watch and admire!
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What a touching revelation! Good for you that you understand the situation of bees. Unlike others who upon seeing a swarm bees hurried up burn them. How I wish all the family may have that attitude towards bees as yours.
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