Swarms
DON'T PANIC! Swarming bees are happy bees! Though they might look terrifying, they are homeless bees, and therefore not defensive or aggressive!
DO NOT CALL PEST CONTROLLERS OR THE COUNCIL! They will likely just put you in touch with a beekeeper anyway. These are not pests but a welcome part of nature!
Are They Honeybees?
Check that it's a honeybee swarm (not a bumblebee, wasp or hornet nest) - see below.
If it's a honeybee swarm then leave them alone and wait until the afternoon. They often congregate in the morning, and have moved on by the evening.
If they're still there in the afternoon, then call me. If you're on Mersea, or close by, I will happily come and collect them.
Why Swarms Happen
Swarms are part of nature. They're how honeybees reproduce (without swarming, you'd only ever have one colony of bees!)
During the spring and early summer, honeybees colonies build up and produce new queens. Because a colony can only have one queen, once the new queen breeds one of them will have to move out!
Often it's the older queen, and an entourage of the older worker bees. They leave the colony and congregate nearby, normally on a tree branch, while they work out who's going and who's staying!
Swarming bees are NOT defensive or aggressive. They have much bigger things on their mind - like finding a new home! Neither do they have a home to defend!
They send out 'scout' bees to look for a suitable new home. And effectively 'vote' on which is the best. Once decided, they move together, with their queen, to their new home.
The arrival of the swarm can look terrifying, but they're all far too interested in getting their new home set up than in you! Before leaving their old home, they load up with honey, and they're already starting to create beeswax (to build the new home with) before they arrive.
Once they find their new home, they get moved in very quickly. Their new queen will start laying eggs as soon as they have built the comb with the beeswax they had when they arrived. Within a day or so they will see this as their new home.
How I Collect A Swarm
I cannot collect swarms that have moved into chimneys, or inside buildings (in wall cavities, etc). This is a specialist task. I may be able to put you in touch with a specialist.
I only collect swarms if they're in place in the afternoon (see above, they often move off by the afternoon).
Depending on where the swarm is, I place a hive containing frames of honeycomb under or near the swarm. The hive already smells of bees, and they will often just move in! If they're on the branch of a tree, I'll put the hive under the branch and bang the branch so they fall into the hive.
Once the queen is in the hive, the rest will follow!
There's usually lots of bees flying at this point (especially if I've banged them off their branch!) So I put the hive on the ground with the lid ajar. The bees in the hive start 'fanning' where they flap their wings fast to spread a pheromone that allows the other bees to find them.
Gradually, and towards the evening, they all settle in for the night.
Bees are wild, so you can't make them do anything! It's not uncommon for them to all come back out the hive the next morning and clear off as a swarm again! So I put sugar syrup in the hive to try and convince them this is a good place to stay!
Generally I collect the hive the next day, once I'm sure they've moved in!
I take them to a separate apiary as a quarantine (I have no idea where they came from, or if they could be carrying one of the many bee diseases).
Why Do Beekeepers Charge To Collect Swarms?
I can't tell you how many times I've heard "but you're getting all these bees for free"!
- They will not produce any reasonable amounts of honey in the first year. I will have to home them (a hive costs approximately £250) for a year. And if they've swarmed they might be genetically prone to swarming - so having homed and fed them for a year they might clear off next Spring anyway!
- I know nothing about these bees. I breed my bees to be calm, clean and hard working (this comes from selecting good queens). These bees are completely unknown. They might even bring disease with them.
- Lastly, collecting a swarm takes a significant amount of time. About 50% of the time I arrive to find it's bumble bees, or they've just moved on 10 minutes before I arrive. I then have to collect them, and later I have to come back and collect the hive. Added to that, they tend to all go at the same time - so sometimes I can collect three swarms in a day (add up those £250 hives!)
That's why beekeepers charge for swarm collection!
I am happy to collect swarms on Mersea for a donation to Farleigh Hospice.