Beekeeping Made Easy

                      Bees  --   Swarms

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 Older copies of ABC and XYZ of Bee Culture have the introduction that A.I. Root wrote for the first edition published in 1877. In it he describes , " about the year 1865, during the month of August, a swarm of bees passed overhead where were at work, an my fellow-workman, in answer to some of my inquiries respecting their habits, asked what I would give for them.  I, not dreaming he could by any means call them down, offered him a dollar, and he started after them.  To my astonishment, he, in a short time, returned with them, hived in a rough box he had hastily picked up, and at that moment I commenced learning my ABC in bee culture."

This is a great way to get into beekeeping.  Notice that it happened without prior planning and was a spur  of the moment thing.   The learning about bees commenced after the bees were in his possession.  Many beekeepers became beekeepers in a like fashion.

However, most of use were not lucky enough to find bees looking for a home.  We bought our first swarms in the traditional way -- package bees.  Contrary to what is being said about the lack of swarms in these pages, swarms do happen.   Any hive of bees whether wild or managed will swarm if the conditions are right.  This is usually in the months of March (in the South), April in the (North), and sometimes in May and June.  Once the bees leave a beekeepers hive and cross onto others property, the beekeeper has lost control and title to "his/her" bees.   Under old English common law, a beekeeper could pursue the bees as long as he/she kept them in sight.  However, the beekeeper runs into the problem of trespassing onto others property to claim possession of the bees.   If you find a swarm of bees and a property owner gives you access to the swarm, it is yours.  By the same token, if you register with the fire department/police department and they call you to get a swarm from a public place, the first person who arrives to capture the swarm is the new owner of that swarm.   My experience is that several people are called and the first one there is the lucky one.   The goal of the public service departments is to rid the bees as a public nuisance and the quicker they are gone the better for public safety.

How do you capture a swarm of bees?

• The first thing you must do is be prepared.  You may use the following check sheet to help.
  • Ask questions --  How high off the ground are they?   How long have they been there? Are they easy to get to?  I once received a call from the police department to retrieve a swarm in an apartment building.  When I got there, I found that the bees were really under a guys car and it wasn't possible to get them quickly or easily.  The guy that owned the car was quite irritated -- he had to go someplace and was late.   I ended up recommending to the owner of the car that he spray the bees with an insecticide if he wanted to get rid of them fast.   I saw too much trouble for me to get this free swarm.   What I didn't tell him was he could just get in his car and drive down the road to get rid of them -- at least most of them.
  • Have a hive with a bottom board and top cover ready for the swarm before the call comes in.  You could use a cardboard box as a temporary container but it is better to do it right to begin with.
  • Have your protective clothing available -- don't spend an hour looking for it.
  • Do not attempt to retrieve a swarm that could lead to you falling and harming yourself.  The cost of an emergency room visit is far greater than the value of a swarm.
  • Avoid getting others stung as they watch while you retrieve the swarm.  Order them back for their own protection.  Most people will comply.
  • Bees that swarm are usually very easy to handle.  However, if they have started building comb on the branch or location they selected to settle, they may be defensive.
• What happens if the bees refuse to go into your bee hive or box.
  • First, most likely the queen did not enter the box.  If she did, the bees would follow.
  • You just can not set a box on the ground and expect the bees to enter.   They must be forced to enter the box.  You can do this in several ways:
    • If it is possible to cut off the branch the bees are hanging on, one can cut it off and place the branch over the frames in the hive body and with gentle smoke encourage them to move down into the box.  Once they are in the box, the top cover can be put on and the box then transported to a new location.
    • Another method shown in books is to place a sheet on the ground under the swarm, then place the box on the sheet, and shake the swarm from the branch.  The bees fall in and around the hive.  Sometimes they will march in -- other times they will take to the air.  I know a fellow beekeeper who chased the same swarm three times before he finally got it.
    • If you can not get permission to cut the branch, then you will need to lift the box to just below the cluster of bees.  It is best use a ladder to support the hive body in this case.  A sharp shake of the branch will cause the bees to drop onto the box.  Give the bees a few minutes to go down.  If they fly back to the branch, you can be sure the queen was not among the bees that were shook from the branch.  You will have to repeat the process.
    • If the bees land on something that can not be shaken, then you will need to place the box as close to the cluster as possible.  I like to take a frame from the box and scoop as many bees as I can onto the frame.  I then set it into the hive, and get another frame and repeat the process as often as needed to get the majority of bees into the box.  I then check the location of the swarm for a queen that may be wandering around the site where the cluster was located.   I had to use this process when I retrieved a swarm from a fire hydrant several years ago.   Bees sometimes select the darnest things to land on when they swarm.  I have seen bees on car external mirrors, in out houses, under the eves of a house, etc.

   

• Advantage of a swarm
  • It is usually free and not hard to catch
• Disadvantage of a swarm
  • The bees may be carrying some disease.
  • It may be too difficult to get and cause much distress to yourself and others watching.
  • Some swarms may be small and some may be caught too late in the season to survive.

  Swarms are treated just like a package of bees when you start them.