Swarming is a natural division of the hives population. When the number of workers exceeds the capacity of the hive, the workers will raise a second queen and she will travel to a new location with half of the colonies worker bees and Drones. Generally this occurs in the Spring or Summer months -  4 to 5 weeks after the queen begins laying eggs after Winter. Each hive can swarm several times a year, often until August in the Eastern United States.

A new location is picked by scout bees who are workers that are skilled in covert operations. I kid you not, Scout bees will search out the best place to successfully relocate the swarming colony. This is often an existing bee hive in a tree, house or other established location. Important things to the scouts include drafts, accessibility, guard ability, size and location. Often though, a new suitable location is not found before swarming is necessary and the swarm will find unusual places to temporarily stay. This can be on the bumper of a car, around a mailbox, in the lower branches of a tree or as shown in this photo, on the corner of a picnic table.  Often, you will find swarms within arms reach. 

Often at risk of life and limb, scout bees will infiltrate these other colonies by repeated attempting to breech the hives entrance. After several failed attempts, the scout bee can pick up enough of the hives scent and will be allowed entry.

After looking around and evaluating the strength of this hive and accessing its food stores, the scout will return to the SWARM to announce whether it is worth battling this established colony for sole possession of the hive.

If the scouts argument is strong enough, the swarm will indeed attack and attempt to gain control of the hive and its contents. The swarm in this case, if it wins, also gains control of all existing eggs and larva, which will hatch and be adopted by the swarm as its first offspring in the new settlement.
 

If the swarm fails in its attempt it may be too weak in number to be a viable new colony. Sometimes it will return to the home colony to reemerge, but this is rare. Fighting to gain the goods of an established hive has its rewards, but most swarms prefer to find a livable location and slowly build the colony back in numbers. Also, returning home to the mother colony occurs within a few days or the scent of the swarm queen will cause the mother colony to treat the swarm as a hostile invader and battle will occur. This is counter productive to the theory of swarming, so thus it is rare.

This single photo gets the most email comments. Yes, honeybees will land on pretty much anything and it's usually in your neighbor's yard. Again, you need to teach your neighbors to be good beekeeper's neighbors. With a little talking before a swarm happens makes the shock of a ten pound swarm on their property or car bumper. Let them know that swarms happen and when a swarm occurs, invite you neighbor to see how gentle they are. You need to be the WISE OLD BEEKEEPER and NOT the pesky neighbor who has bees next to my swimming pool.

Signs of swarming include seeing excessive bees clinging to the outside of the box, either hanging from the bottom in a conical fashion - which is a very good sign of swarming  or covering the front of the box in a scattered fashion, facing downwards and appearing to be overly active and jittery.

Catching Bees has gotten easier with pheromones that can be placed in swarm catching boxes. I'll be using these this Season of 2001, watch as I build up hives quickly. I hope to have a 2 queen hive and a single 2 story colony. I'll be using pollen traps and the close-ups photography will blow you away, I promise. Also, expect queen rearing and maybe some mating photos, cross your fingers.

This latter trait usually occurs when the hives population is so great that the internal temperature of the colony exceeds 95 degrees Fahrenheit even while fanning frantically, which is the ideal temperature for nursing and developing eggs and larva.

It is normal to see many, sometimes hundreds of bees facing the entrance and fanning rapidly to circulate air into the hive. Inside, workers will fan water and nectar to help evaporate it, which also greatly reduces the colonies internal temperature. Also the bees will fan the egg cells themselves. So keep in mind that for ever entrance fanner you see, there are many inside the hive doing similar fanning to control the hive temperature.

Locating Swarms

For starters, lets assume you do not have a swarm yet, but you are looking. Two really great places to improve your chances of getting swarms are 1) advertise in a local news paper that you will remove swarms for free and 2) contact the local police department and advise them of that you are available to remove swarms if they receive calls concerning them in your area.

After finding a swarm the fun begins. But it can also be lots of work. You will need to consider a few important issues before you capture the swarm. Below, I cover all the important things that must be done in order to make the swarms transaction from temporary home to your nuc ( 5 framed box ) or full sized super. Please read and consider whether you are ready for capturing swarms.

Swarms are very gentle because they are homeless and the queen is usually buried deep in the solid mass of bees. They are easily captured and usually accept anything that resembles a suitable home. But keep in mind the immediate needs of the swarm and also time needed to successfully move them to your chosen location.

Capturing and removing Swarms

Once you have received notice that a swarm exists, or if you are lucky enough to find one on your own, then you must make all effort to capture the swarm as soon as possible. Swarms found on branches, bumpers, etc., are just waiting for a better more permanent home to be found by the scout bees. Don't be surprised if you pull up to the yard where the swarm is located, just to find them flying off  by the thousands. Trying to follow them once in flight is not an easy venture because often they will travel another mile to their new permanent home and they don't follow roads and signs like you'll have to.

Expect to read about pheromone attractors to catch swarms this Spring 2001 as I start doing a section on capturing swarms in the 21st century. Expect hundreds of photos and wallpaper images this Spring. Beemaster will be back in business again and I will strive to be the LEADING SITE on BEEKEEPING on the Internet. 

They tend to stay low, often only a few feet above the ground. But sometimes they will be hanging on a tree branch where a ladder or rope is needed. Lets cover the steps of swarm capturing in some logical order. Remember, swarms are generally docile. This doesn't mean smack them with a stick or shove your hand inside to see if they are solid. It does mean that you can get away with out the full beekeeping garb that you may wear when the bees are having a bad day. I still like wearing my swimming goggles and leather gloves. First, get in close and do a general inspection of the bees. Look for any visible mites or even signs of battle or sickness. Healthy bees are active, even in a swarming cluster and although they seemed relaxed, they should be observant of your presence. If these bees seem to be healthy and worth keeping, then take all effort to handle them carefully - as not to damage the queen, who is likely buried deep inside the cluster. Note: read below if bees seem infected or ill.

After inspecting and accessing that the bees are worth capturing for your bee yard, take a general look around the area directly below the swarm and also check for any obstacles that could be in your way. Direct clearance below the cluster is ideal, but not always available. If possible though create a platform on which to place a cardboard box large enough to hold the cluster.

Place the box below the bees and either sharply shake downward the object, dislodging the bees in one sharp and purposeful shake. Tree branches really are ideal for this, but bees can land on anything. Sometimes you will need to scrape them off and into the box. Either way, getting the majority of the cluster is important.

I keep Nuc boxes handy. These are 5 framed super boxes that are idea for starting new colonies, breeding queens and also used to catch your own swarms. If you do catch your own swarms, you can often re-introduce them into the hive they came from by adding additional 10 frame hive supers on top of the colony. Remember, swarming is caused by over population and giving the colonies more room is a great way to prevent swarming. It's much cheaper to go upwards then to go outwards.

Catch the majority of the bees in the cardboard box. Remove a few frames from the nuc or 10 frame box and dump the bees gently into the hive. Carefully place the frames back into the hive box and cover with the inner cover and lid. Place the hive near the cluster and shake what ever other bees you can on to the ground near the hive.

At this point, it's a time game. You'll notice that the remainder of bees will slowly move their way into the hive. By nightfall, all the bees will be inside and you are ready to move the box back to your yard. Be sure to cover the entrance with a piece of wood that seals in the bees before moving and take precautions that the box cannot spill over or fall out of your vehicle. I always wrap everything tightly with duct tape until I get home.

Watching a Swarm in flight

I've been present for dozens and dozens of swarms and each and every one is as thrilling as the last. I keep a close eye on the hives toward evening. When evening comes and you see bees clinging in unusual numbers on the front of the hive, chances are it is getting ready to swarm. Swarming usually happens in the morning, so I try to check on each of the possible swarming hives and cross my fingers.

Swarms start as a great retreat from the hive and at a massive rate. You will see the honeybees literally bubble out of the entrance as if they were frantically escaping a fire. They immediately take flight and follow the scout bees toward either the permanent home or a local stop-over spot. As they lift from the hive entrance and rise to the sky, the bees make a massive humming sound that can be heard for hundreds of feet. This humming keeps just about every bird or insect away.

The last swarm I watched was amazing. I stood in the middle of the road, in front of my house and 80 thousand bees were swirling in a giant 40 foot wide, 10 foot thick counter-clockwise hurricane - just feet above my head. The sound was incredible. Literally a car snuck up on me cause I couldn't hear it coming. The man must have thought I was nuts just standing there looking toward the sky. He kept driving :)

The bees make this noise mostly through flapping their wings, but 80 thousand bees times 4 wings is a lot of flapping. They were air born for about 20 minutes. They had picked a somewhat camouflaged branch in the tree at the front of my property, about 20 foot up. 

First you'll see a handful of workers and the queen land. Then over a 7 or 8 minute period, all the bees landed and were returning together in swarm formation. They were there for three days, then one morning while I wasn't watching, they just flew away to their permanent home. I wish them well.