Bee Swarms

This swarm is the most common configuration of bee swarms.

Within the hive it is necessary for the worker bees to communicate with the queen bee. When the hive becomes too large and the worker bees can no longer communicate with the queen, they will instinctively feed egg cells with royal jelly and these cells become the cells for new queens to be hatched. When the queen cells hatch, the dominant queen takes over half of the existing hive. Swarming is the action of one of the queens leaving the existing hive with half of the colony. This colony can consist of anywhere from 1,000 bees to 10-20,000 or more bees.  Therefore, a swarm is a colony of bees on their way to a new destination to set up housekeeping so they can continue their species. On their way to the new destination, the queen and the colony will stop at a tree, a bush, on a building, or on a fence, etc. When a swarm is arriving or leaving, it is a frightening sight! It is a very large, black, noisy, cloud with bees flying everywhere. They will eventually land and become calm and docile. A visible ball of bees in an unprotected area is almost always a true swarm and consists only of bees – no hive! While the swarm is resting in the tree, bush, etc., the bees are generally docile and stay in their "ball" or "beard-like" formation. If someone throws something at them, sprays them, or tries to hose them down, they will fly everywhere until they settled back down in the same area. If left alone, this swarm of bees will fly off in 1-3 days.

From this resting place, scout bees will fly off to look for a safe controlled environment, which instinctively meets their criteria. Any enclosed structure that has at least 1/4- 1/8 inch opening will give access to the bees. Generally the cracks between the stucco and an eave, the openings in wood siding, chimneys, the flashing around chimneys, etc. will provide access for insects. Once the scout bees find a location, they return to the swarm and lead them to the new location. Within a half hour to an hour after arriving, the swarm will be inside that new location. At that point the activity on the outside is limited to the field workers coming and going and bringing pollen and nectar back to the new hive. The bees will start building their hive (putting up their wax structure) within 26 to 30 hours of their arrival.

Any beeswax inside an enclosed structure will have a honey odor. Even if bees are sprayed, and the honeycomb is left in the wall, it will continue to attract bees into the area. This can include the Africanized bee. Also, any hive left in a wall unattended will attract ants, rats, other animals, cockroaches and wax moths. An unattended hive can also leak honey down a wall and also can become contaminated and emit a very sickly-sweet, moldy odor. Unlike bees that are resting, bees that are hiving, are territorial and will defend their space. All hives and honeycomb need to be removed from structures and should be done by a professional.


Bee Swarms
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This swarm is the most common configuration of bee swarms: hanging off of a tree branch.



 

Pictured here is a small swarm of bees attached under a palm frond. This, again, is a solid ball of bees.

 
 
 

Pictured here is a large swarm of bees hanging off a tree branch. This swarm is made of solid bees; there is no beeswax, honeycomb
                     or hive.

 

 

This is a swarm of bees resting on the side of a building. Within approximately one hour, this swarm would have been in between the exterior and interior wall, and within 24 hours it would have started building a hive within the wood framing of the wall. Fortunately, a crew was in the area and was able to remove the swarm from the outside of the building.

The Bee Man
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Email: b@beemanbuzz.com