# Wow, it's a swarm!



## elinor (Jun 20, 2002)

Good morning everyone! I decided to post on the beekeeping section since I have just witnessed my first swarm yesterday. Talk about "WOW and holey smokes, that's a LOT of bees"!!! They just came from 'somewhere' and decided to take a rest stop on the second floor just under an overhang eave. Bees were just flying everywhere, resting on the leaves of nearby trees, crawling up the back of the cabin, thousands flying around in the air around the eave. (This was around noon time.) By the early evening hours they had all settled down and 'clustered' together. 

As of this morning there were a few buzzing around the main 'ball'. Now, I have a neighbor that has a few hives, and he was very "excited" to hear of our swarm, so much so that he's going to buy a "box to catch them in". Which got me to thinking, well why not try to get a hive of our own. So when he comes over I'm going to ask him a lot of questions. As far as "everyone" reading this, any hints, tips, you can offer would be appreciated. 

Does this swarm mean that a colony just got too big and decided to split and make a new hive? 
Do bees "migrate" with the seasons or they always settle down in a home and stay there till it gets too crowded? 
They didn't seem aggressive, just sounded like it because there were so many. Are they following a young/old queen that's looking for a new home?

It was quite fascinating seeing this swarm. Like I said, I never saw one before and was truly intrigued, their sheer numbers alone was amazing.


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## copperkid3 (Mar 18, 2005)

That last sentence said it all......you've got it *BAD*......swarm fever!!! No cure, 
but it usually helps somewhat, to get some bees and try to learn to "live with the malady".....,<grin>
You already have a good grasp on what takes place when a honeybee colony 
decides to "expand".......a highly organized social structure of multi-tasked insects 
that use a form of one of the most primitive methods of reproduction: miotosis. 
The colony in the springtime, begins to produce more and more individuals and through 
a combination of factors; i.e. overcrowding of the existing space is usually one of the 
catalysts that sets off a number of other responses.....

The existing queen 'mother' will be laying eggs at a frantic rate and then the worker bees
will 'decide' to take some very young larvae and begin feeding them large amounts of 
a substance produced by the bees called royal jelly.....the cells that these young 
'princesses in waiting' are then 'changed' and elongated to resemble a whole, shelled peanut. 
The queen cells are then sealed and the royal larvae, are allowed to develop. 
Just before these cells are ready to "emerge", the old mother queen will be put on a 
crash diet to slim down for her flight to establish a new home. Scouts have been out 
and about and then come back to 'dance' and give their best reports on possible sites 
for a new hive location. Before eventually leaving, the bees will fill up on honey/nectar 
to have the necessary fuel to not only complete the trip, but also the energy needed to 
form wax scales that are necessary to build new comb for the next hive. A honeybee 
full of honey is like a well-fed man after Sunday dinner.....he feels happy and content 
and it's hard for him to bend over to do much about anything......similar to the worker bee 
who has to bend her abdomen to inflict a sting! So "most" swarms are fairly docile with bees 
that have been stuffed with honey. 

Then suddenly, half the colony will depart in a mad dash and buzzing mass of bees 
that swarm through the air like a large cloud. Sometimes the old queen gets tired along 
the route and will settle on a tree branch, low bush or the side of building. The bees 
in her entourage, then cluster around her and link their legs together to form a ball that 
hangs together around their monarch and they may spend 10 minutes (or less) or may 
never leave the spot again!!! Who knows what goes on in their 'decision' making processes??? 
If you're fortunate enough to get "the bug" or bee fever, you might end up spending a 
lifetime trying to find the answer to that question and million others as well.....good luck with your endeavor.


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## indypartridge (Oct 26, 2004)

elinor said:


> ... well why not try to get a hive of our own.


Why not indeed! Copperkid has answered your questions, so I'll just add that beekeeping is a fascinating hobby where you will learn far more than just bees. You'll become much more aware of your environment: you'll start learning every plant and tree that blooms, when they bloom, etc.

Check your local library for books and videos on beekeeping. Check the Internet - there are lots of tutorials and Youtube videos. Check in with a local beekeeping club: clubs often offer beginning beekeeping classes and are great places to find mentors. Click on your county:
http://www.pastatebeekeepers.org/Reports/Map/Contacts and Inspectors.htm#


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## Michael Bush (Oct 26, 2008)

>Does this swarm mean that a colony just got too big and decided to split and make a new hive? 

Sort of. The colny didn't just "get" too big, it planned to get "too big" so that it could swarm. It's how the superorganism (the colony) reproduces. So as of last fall they tried to put away enough stores so that they could build up enough during late winter to build up even more in early spring when the pollen and nectar came in so that they could cast a swarm of young bees and the old queen and still make enough honey for the original colony to stock up enough to get through the winter and do all of this early enough that the new colony also has a good chance of building up and getting through the winter. So it all needs to happen before the main flow.

>Do bees "migrate" with the seasons or they always settle down in a home and stay there till it gets too crowded? 

They stay in one place until they die. Except for the swarms that colony casts. Unless things get really really bad, in which case sometimes they "abscond".

>They didn't seem aggressive, just sounded like it because there were so many. Are they following a young/old queen that's looking for a new home?

Usually the old queen and young bees. If it's an after swarm (unlikely basedon the size) then it might be a virgin queen and a mixture of old and young bees.

>It was quite fascinating seeing this swarm. Like I said, I never saw one before and was truly intrigued, their sheer numbers alone was amazing. 

Swarms have an excitement and electricity that you can't explain unless you've seen one.


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## Cascade Failure (Jan 30, 2007)

Michael Bush said:


> Swarms have an excitement and electricity that you can't explain unless you've seen one.


As a new beek I would both love and hate to see a swarm. At this stage in the learning game I guess I would rather not.


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## alleyyooper (Apr 22, 2005)

First I heard them as I stepped out of my pole barn, a loud buzzing that made me say what is all that noise.
Then the cloud of swirling massive amounts of bees circleing in the sky around and around like a picture of debre in the gripps pof a tornado.
run to the house and tell Kare we have a swarm from one of our hives in the air.
Back out side to grab a old pan I wash parts in and a small hammer and start drumming. The circle of bees tightens comes lower down instead of so high in the sky and soon the pick the elevator of the corn picker to land on. I grab my hemit and veil, bee brush, a 5 gallon pail with the lid on a shot section of rope I had made and a step ladder. They were in two clusters so I swep the lowest smallest cluster in the pail closeing the lid. By then Kare had a hive set up for me a short distance away where I dump them. I go back and sweep the biggest cluster into the pail shtting the lid. go back to the hive, dump them in. Get a frame of honey stick it in some braceing of the elevator for the bees. They start gathering on it, when it is about covered I take it to the hive then shake them off.

That was My first swarm. I don't see them issue much any longer but I collect a bunch every year. Some Are unforgetable like the ones on the ground that marched into the hive in a hour and a half. I found thwe queen in that mass of bees on the ground grabbed her with the queen catcher to place in the hive.
It second one I got called for on the ground took 3 hours to finish marching into the hive.
The swarm in front of the local Home Depot store will stick in my memory also. I had the swarm in a hive and loaded in the truck in about 10 minites. It took me another 30 miniutes to answer the questions from the crowd that had gathered to watch me work. 

We just collected or first swarm of this year Sunday morning. It was placed in our front yard. sunday afternoon while Kare and I was unloading nucs it swarmed out of the hive again. I shook it out of the pine tree into a different hive body. they were still there last evening.

 Al


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## elinor (Jun 20, 2002)

Thanks all for replying. Sorry its been quite a while since I posted to reply. With my job, when I get busy, I reallllly get busy and it might be many weeks before I have the chance to get onto the computer. And having dial up doesn't help matters. 

We still have the bees, though it looks like it's not the huge amount that we first had on that first day. Whether it's good or bad, I think they've decided to start making a home between the plastic flashing of the eave vent and the roof itself. I'm glad they're sticking around, but of all the places to take up residence!!! Hope to talk with our neighbor this week sometime about where he got his hives. 

Thanks all! Any further developments that come along, I'll letcha know.

Have a great day everyone!

elinor


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## alleyyooper (Apr 22, 2005)

Here are a couple of places.

http://www.kelleybees.com/PageDefault.aspx

http://www.mannlakeltd.com/index.asp

:grin: Al


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