Bees swarming why

Colonies are stimulated to swarm during spring when warmer weather, together with an abundance of nectar and pollen, provide ideal conditions for the colony to increase rapidly. The queen, together with the field bees, leaves the overcrowded hive and clusters on a nearby object, usually a small tree or shrub. The swarm will often remain for a day or two while scout bees worker bees search for a new home, or it may move to another location. In the parent colony, new virgin queens emerge from queen cells and fight to the death.

The fittest queen will survive and usually mate, and continue to maintain the colony. Although bees swarm mostly in the spring from September to November , some colonies may swarm during the summer and autumn.

Most swarms leave the colony or move to a new location between 10am and 2pm on warm sunny days. During wet weather a swarm may stay in its resting place for several days.

Most people who are unfamiliar with honey bees have a natural fear of them when they occur in large numbers. But swarming bees are very docile and are not inclined to sting provided they are left alone and a few common sense precautions are taken.

Keep children and pets inside for half an hour or so, until the flying bees have clustered on to a bush or other object. But what exactly is a swarm? Swarming occurs most often in the spring but can happen at any point from spring through fall. Honey bees - Apis Mellifera - work nearly the entire year building wax comb and storing honey within their hive. They will use up every last bit of space with comb for food stores and brood.

The higher the population of bees in the colony, the more comb and food they need. Eventually, once the cavern they live in becomes filled, the worker bees begin preparing to split the colony in half. In other words, they prepare to swarm. In preparation of the swarm, female worker bees - the nurse bees - choose about 10 to 15 brood cells with fertilized eggs and feed those eggs a diet made entirely of royal jelly - a protein rich food for young developing bees.

While a standard worker or drone egg is fed royal jelly for the first four days of its development, future Queens are exclusively fed royal jelly during their development. As these new Queens are developing the rest of the colony slowly stops feeding the existing Queen and she slows down her freuency of laying eggs. The combination of these two actions helps the Queen become lighter and able to fly once more. The swarm has begun! This group of bees then leave the old hive and cluster together on a seemingly arbitrary surface.

As a beekeeper, in terms of building up your current hives, capturing local swarms is often as a great method to incorporate new bees into your colonies that have strong genetics and will fare well.

Below are some helpful steps to keep in mind:. There you have it. Home Who Can Help? What to Do if You See a Swarm. Below are some helpful steps to keep in mind: Get the word out.