Spring is quickly approaching which means swarm season is among us. But what exactly is a swarm? Swarming occurs most often in the spring but can happen at any point from spring through fall. Honey bees - Apis Mellifera - work nearly the entire year building wax comb and storing honey within their hive. They will use up every last bit of space with comb for food stores and brood. The higher the population of bees in the colony, the more comb and food they need. Eventually, once the cavern they live in becomes filled, the worker bees begin preparing to split the colony in half. In other words, they prepare to swarm.
Preparing to Swarm
In preparation of the swarm, female worker bees - the nurse bees - choose about 10 to 15 brood cells with fertilized eggs and feed those eggs a diet made entirely of royal jelly - a protein rich food for young developing bees. While a standard worker or drone egg is fed royal jelly for the first four days of its development, future Queens are exclusively fed royal jelly during their development. As these new Queens are developing the rest of the colony slowly stops feeding the existing Queen and she slows down her freuency of laying eggs. The combination of these two actions helps the Queen become lighter and able to fly once more.
Once the new Queen cells are capped and nearly ready to produce the new wave of fully mature Queens (only one of which will survive and become Queen to this colony), the workers wait for the perfect day with perfect weather and all at once about 50% of the existing colony, along with the pre-existing Queen, depart from the hive. The swarm has begun! This group of bees then leave the old hive and cluster together on a seemingly arbitrary surface. Often swarms will gather on tree branches or light posts. Some have clustered on side mirrors of cars or mailboxes.
Finding A New Home
Whereever it may be that they land, and however many bees there may be in a swarm, this moment, the swarm, is typically the time when a colony of bees is at its most gentle demeanor. When bees swarm they are very vulnerable. They have no home. Their Queen is fairly exposed, though she is in the center of the cluster surrounded by thousands of workers. They are surviving off food the workers gorged on before leaving their old hive. Over the next two or three days the swarm will stay in their cluster as scout bees fly off in search of a new home. Once a new home is chosen (through an incredible democratic system) the swarm flies off once again and moves into their new home.
What If You See A Swarm?
So what do you do if you see a swarm? First off, take a picture! To find a swarm of bees is an incredible, and often rare sight to witness. Don't be afraid to get a bit close and watch what the bees are doing. If you watch closely you may even witness them voting on their new home with their signature wiggle dance. Always remember though, if you choose to get closer to a swarm, or even a hive, always move slowly and never swat! Second, leave a small bowl of water out nearby with stones or corks in it so the bees can have a drink (this is actually a good thing to do in your own backyard or on a porch - pollinators will love it!). And finally, search online for your local beekeepers association. You will then be able to find local beekeepers who will be more than thrilled to catch the swarm in a shoe box and bring them to their backyard apiary. If you are unable to find a beekeeper online, call your local fire department or police station. Hobbyists and professionals alike will often reach out to fire and police stations asking to be put on a list for these exact situations.
Mia DePaolis is "just a girl trying to figure out how to keep bees" on Instagram at @beeboxing