The Roar of the Crowd (Of Bees)

The swarm's cluster.

Yesterday, our friend Lizzie came over for some artistic inspiration. She was interested in bees and who else does she know with an active beehive in their backyard! Well Lizzie came on a great day as our beehive swarmed.

Swarming is a natural process that bees usually perform in the Spring (it can also occur later, but Spring is the optimal time as it allows both the new and old colonies to strengthen before winter).  The old queen will lay some queen cups and then at some point later will leave the hive with about 60% of the worker bees and some drones.  They will form a cluster nearby the original hive and wait while scout bees go out and look for a suitable new home.  They can wait for a couple of hours or a couple of days.  Once a new home is found the cluster will move right in.

Just a note that swarms are usually not dangerous to humans as the bees have no stores or brood to protect as long as they remain unprovoked.  If you should happen to get a swarm on your property, call your local agriculture or state's environmental protection agency to get a list of beekeepers in your area.  Many beekeepers will happily come get your swarm and take it away if they can reach it.

Swarm in flight.

Beekeepers do not usually encourage swarming behavior of their existing hives, and take steps to keep it from occurring.  The loss of 60% of the hive can be devastating to honey production.  We were hoping for a swarm this year though as we lost our other bee colony late last year.  We cleaned up the empty hive and then patiently waited.  Well, Lizzie came on a great day to look at the bees as we got our swarm.

As we walked out into the orchard I noticed honey bees flying in and out of the dead hive.  This was a sure sign that the hive was swarming and the bees were looking for a new home.  We looked up and lo and behold, the swarm was hanging on a tree limb of the large oak the sits right at the entrance to the orchard.  This sort of stinks though because they are out of our reach.  Had they been closer to the ground we could have captured the swarm and placed them in the dead hive ourselves, but now we have to wait and see if fate will bring them to the hive on their own.  They did overnight as a cluster in the tree, and there still is a bevy of activity happening at the dead hive today so things are looking good.  We have our fingers crossed that soon we will once again have two hives to manage!

At one point while Lizzie was here the cluster dispersed and all the bees were flying around.  It was so loud and all you could see were all these black dots whizzing through the air in a frenzy.  Below is video that I took of the cluster reforming on the oak branch. (Sorry that the video is a bit shaky as I was holding the camera up as high as I could to get the best shot of the bees).