The Green Parent

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:

1. Leave it alone. The scouts will find a home soon enough and likely within a few hours the whole swarm will be gone.
2. 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.
3. 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.
4. 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