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A swarm is a new honey bee colony looking for a home. When an established colony gets too crowded, the workers build queen cells and begin preparations to swarm. A couple of days before the new queens are due to hatch, the old queen leaves the hive with approximately half of the bees to seek a new home. The other half of the bees stay and wait for their new queen to emerge. Once the swarm leaves, the crowded condition is relieved and the hive continues on with the remaining bees.
Quite often, the bees have not yet decided on a location for their new home when the swarm emerges. When this happens, they stop to rest out in the open. This is usually when people encounter a swarm. The bees cluster around the queen in a big clump and wait for the scout bees to find a suitable home. If all goes well they will find a place to their liking and move into it within hours or days. In some cases, no place is found and they make their home in the place where they are clustered.
As early as January, swarms begin to emerge from beehives in the Gilroy area. Usually they peak in April and May and are pretty well done by the end of July. 1997 was unusual in that 2 swarm calls came in late in September! September swarms are very unusual.
Swarms usually emerge in good weather between 10 a.m. and 2 p.m. Often they are not noticed right away though, since they generally sit quietly and don't make a fuss once they settle. Swarms tend to be reported in the afternoon or early evening when people return home from work.
As a general rule, a swarm is less likely to sting than an established colony. This is because honeybees sting to protect their home, and a swarm is a colony without a home to protect. (This is true even of 'Africanized' honey bees, which we do not have in this area.) Many beekeepers don't routinely wear protective gear to capture swarms.
There are some exceptions to this general rule. If you try to drive the swarm away by throwing rocks or spraying it with a hose, you risk invoking the second reason that bees sting -- to protect themselves. When they feel threatened or trapped, they sting.
The most common way to get stung by a swarm that you aren't bothering is to walk through it while it's still flying. There can be as many as 30 or 40 thousand bees swirling in a 20 foot circle around the queen in flight, and if you walk into it you are bound to get bees caught in your hair or clothing. Once caught, they will sting in an attempt to escape.
As always, the old adage holds true. "If you leave them alone, they'll leave you alone."
And of course, a general rule is not a promise. Sometimes bees get in a nasty mood and you never know for sure what set them off. In such cases it might be that the trigger happened before you arrived.
Keep the neighborhood kids from harrassing the swarm, call for help, and sit back to watch the show.
If the swarm is in the Santa Clara, or nothern San Benito Counties in California, you can report it to the Gilroy Beekeepers Association swarm cell phone: (408)644-2382 or pager at (408)301-0214. If you don't live in our area, you might be able to find a contact for a bee association near you at BeeCulture's Who's Who in Apiculture web page. When you get to the page choose your state or Canadian province from the list on the left, and choose "Regional Associations" from the list of categories on the right.
If you call us or any other beekeeper with a swarm call, there are a few pieces of information you should be ready to provide when your page is answered:
Read this! The Gilroy Beekeepers Association removes honey bee swarms at no charge. However, we are not a general pest control service. If you have a yellowjacket problem, please call a pest control service.
Don't panic! If you've read the rest of this page, you know that a swarm is not out to get you. It's looking for a home, and has lost most of it's motivation to sting.
Don't try to drive the swarm away. You will probably fail and may provoke stinging in the process. Once we found that a homeowner had tried to drive a swarm away with a high pressure sprayer and killed the queen in the process. He had been trying for 2 days when he finally called for help. The bees could not leave without their queen, and were getting very impatient with his constant harrassment. We removed the bees successfully within an hour.
4-H members Jesse and Chris size up the swarm.
It's bigger than the 4 gallon bucket we normally use to catch swarms, and
weighs in at 26 puonds! Our biggest one so far. Big ones like this are referred
to as "barrel swarms".
Jesse prepares to shake the swarm into a double box.
And in it goes!
