Hello everyone! I hope this post finds you well. I was out doing some trimming Wednesday evening and was walking toward one of the Chinese Elms and looked up and saw a swarm of bees. I have not seen a swarm of bees since I was a kid! I called a man who has hives and he called one of his neighbors who has just started beekeeping to see if he wanted them. He came as soon as he could and said it was too late in the day to try to move them. He said if he tried it then it would just make them mad. He also said since it was a small swarm they were likely from a hive that split.
This small piece of honeycomb was found under the branch where the swarm was. This likely means the swarm has been in the tree for several days and that they could be feeding… That is a little odd because swarming bees normally only stay on a tree branch for a few hours before the workers have found and agreed upon a suitable nesting site. Sometimes it can take a few days, though. The guy that was here said he thinks the cluster has been on the branches for several days already. He said that worker bees have been bringing food to the cluster because they have made this cone and is definitely sticky with honey. He said he has seen where clusters have stayed in a branch like this for quite a while although it is uncommon.
He said he would be back this early this morning to get the bees and said he might need to leave the hive for a while to make sure most of the bees enter the new box.
I got up earlier than usual to check to see if he was here or had been here. He came even earlier than I expected and the cluster of bees was already gone. Then it rained for quite a while so it was a good thing he came early. I called him at 11:00 and he said it took him about 30 minutes to get the bees in the box. He had to cut several branches because the cluster was in kind of a fork and a lot of twigs were involved. He managed to get all but a handful of bees into the hive so he didn’t feel like he needed to leave the box until tis evening when they would all be in the box for the night. He left me the branch with the fork and another twig where the bees had already been making honeycomb and filling it with honey. Judging by this, he estimated they had been in the tree for 3-5 days and may have very well planned to stick around even longer. Perhaps because the scout bees had not found a suitable spot for their new nest…
I became curious, so I did a little research on bee swarms, queen bees, etc. I read information on several sites and each one had about the same information, some more than others.
There are a few reasons why bees swarm. One is if they outgrow their hive and need to split and part of their colony moves out. Sometimes there is a lack of food so the entire colony will leave the old hive and find a new spot where food is more plentiful. There are other reasons but they are unlikely the case here.
A lot has to happen before a colony of bees can swarm if a hive has to divide so part of the colony can relocate. Worker bees make “queen cups” for the queen to lay eggs and stop feeding her. She has to lay the eggs and stop eating or she will be too heavy to fly. These eggs will be for future queens, and once the eggs are laid, the queen cups are capped. Queen cups are where the queen wil lay eggs that become new virgin queens.
I didn’t know it, but the queen determines what “type” of eggs she lays and even the sex of the new bees. IF the queen is very old, female worker bees can lay eggs for new queens but they won’t be as large. Also, queen bee larvae are fed ONLY royal jelly, whereas other types of bee larvae are fed a combination of royal jelly and pollen…
Sometimes the bees that leave the old hive will do so with the old queen before virgin queens emerge from the queen cups. Once the virgin queens emerge, they will fight to the death even though worker bees try to keep them from fighting. There may need more than one virgin queen in case the hive has to divide more than once (called “cast swarms” where part of the hive leaves with a virgin queen). They may also kill the virgin queens that have not emerged from the queen cups. If part of the hive doesn’t leave with the old queen before the virgin queens emerge, workers also have to protect the old queen. Up to 2/3 of the bees will leave with the old queen.
OH, another weird thing is that when the virgin queen bee mates, she will leave the nest (hive) and go to where drones have congregated and mate (in flight). She may do this for several days until she is fully mated. She then stores up to 6 million sperm from multiple drones in her spermatheca which she will use for her entire life of 3-7 years. The Wikipedia article says female worker bees gather food for the larvae while the males (drones) function is primarily to mate with the queen then they die.
When a colony is ready to swarm, scout bees go out and find a nearby location for the swarm to cluster, sometimes very close to the original hive. That means the hive they left may even be in this same tree. The bees will eat before they leave and may not eat again until the workers have found a new suitable nesting spot. Once the bees have clustered on a branch, 20-50 scouts set off to find suitable nesting sites. The scouts communicate by dancing in such a way that points to where they have found a possible site (called a waggle dance). If their dance is really excited, it encourages other scouts to have a look at what they have found. This dancing and checking out suitable sites goes on until a location is agreed upon then the swarm will relocate.
I am sure I have missed something because it seems like a lot to take in… There are quite a few good websites about bees, so I will include a few links to the ones I thoroughly read…
SWARMING (HONEY BEES)-Wikipedia article.
QUEEN BEE-Interesting Wikipedia article about queen bees.
WHY BEES SWARM AND WHAT YOU SHOULD-OR SHOULDN’T DO- ABOUT THEM. Article by the UC Master Gardeners of Santa Clara County.
HONEYCOMB IDENTIFICATION-BROOD NEST-Great article by BackYardHive.
Definitely, if you find a swarm of bees, you should contact a beekeeper to see if they will come and remove them and put them in a suitable hive box. Sometimes, homeowners find a swarm on the side of their house under an eve and spray like they would a paper wasp nest. If they have been there for a while and have started making honeycomb, spraying not only kills that colony, it can also endanger other colonies as well. Bees from other nests can come and eat the honey and take the pesticide back to their own nest.
Experienced beekeepers are interesting to watch as they remove swarms and put them into a box. I remember as a kid my grandpa had several hives here. One time we were visiting my cousins on their farm and there was a swarm of bees in a tree next to their house. They had relocated to another farm when the Corps of Engineers bought their old farm because the Truman Dam was being built and water would eventually cover their land. Anyway, the farm they relocated to had a HUGE old farmhouse. There were a few rooms they couldn’t use because honey bees were living in and on the walls. Anyway, my mom called grandpa and he came with a box to remove the swarm. Grandpa put his hand inside the cluster of bees and found the queen. The swarm then circled his arm and he just raked the bees off into the box. He didn’t get stung once!
Swarming bees are usually harmless because they have filled up on honey before they leave the old hive. There are several species of honey bees, but they all generally have the same characteristics and reasons for swarming. However, in some areas, there are more aggressive Africanized bees that can be a problem. Some beekeepers that bring home aggressive species have found them too dangerous and need help getting rid of them. More experienced beekeepers will introduce queens from a docile hive and within 45 days or so, the aggressive bees will be replaced by docile bees. If nests are disturbed or threatened, guard bees can also attack people and pets. More aggressive species will become agitated by mowers or other loud noises…
OK, I better close this post. As I said, there is a lot online about bees, swarms, keeping bees, etc. I learned a lot I didn’t know.
Until next time, take care, be safe, stay well, be positive, and always be thankful…
The Belmont Rooster 
How nice that they chose your elm. I see swarms of honeybees often, but typically in bad situations. They frequently come to my colleagues home in the Los Angeles region, but he is afraid of bees. (Yes, a horticulturist who is afraid of bees, etc.) I am convinced that they are attracted to his home because it is the greenest place in the neighborhood. At work, there are at least two buildings that similarly attract bees, although I have no idea why. One of the buildings was occupied by bees three times two years ago! Every time, we must get a beekeeper to remove them. Because this is a public place, bees can not live here. Besides, it would ruin the walls that they want to live inside of.
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Hello Tony! I thought it was rather fascinating. I went to Lowe’sin Sedalia last weekend to look at plants for friend’s planters and their garden center was closed. I asked why it was closed and an employee said they has a swarm of bees. Someone came and removed them but there were still a lot of angry bees in the garden center. The swarm in the tree is only the second I have seen… It is odd that your horticulturalist friend is afraid of bees. Maybe he is allergic to their stings like some people are. I hope you are well. Take care and thanks for the comment!
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You might find this to be amusing. – https://tonytomeo.com/2017/11/11/arachnophobia/
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Very good story! We all live with spiders in one way or another and I have learned to admire them rather than fear them. Except for Brown Recluses, I never kill a spider on purpose. My son and his friend are staying with me AGAIN (temporarily) and Chris does NOT like spiders. One day a very small jumping spider (as I call them) was on the back of the glider he was sitting on. He jumped up and told Nathan, who couldn’t find it. I went out to see what the commotion was about. We finally found it, and it was very small. Chris would not sit back down until he knew it was gone. Your story was very well told, and the fact that the spider had shed his skeleton and was then bigger and somewhere else in the room, LOL! Thanks for sharing!
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What a fascinating post, Lonnie. I learned a lot – thanks for providing the links too! Down on our leased property, near the Washita river, I once happened on a swarm of bees. They were congregating near an old cottonwood tree that had a huge broken limb that looked as if it had rotted out. I couldn’t get close enough to have a better look because the swarm was massive and the noise was deafening and what drew me to investigate in the first place. A couple of months later I returned to the area to find they had completely vanished. I also found raccoon scat at the base of that tree which made me wonder if the raccoons may have caused them to relocate.
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Hello Lori! WOW! That would be something to see a swarm that huge! A large swarm would certainly need a large spot to relocate to. I guess a colony that huge would have needed a very good food supply as well. I suppose the racoons could have caused them problems, or maybe they were interested in the hole in the tree. I hope you and yours are doing well. Take care and thanks for the comment!
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You are so lucky to have bees nesting near you! I haven’t seen bees in the wild for years, only when they visit my flowers.
Once again I loved your blog post! So informative and entertaining!
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Hello Lena! There aren’t as many honey bees on flowers as there were many years ago. A few weeks ago when the Deutzia was flowering up a storm, it was LOADED with honey bees. It is always good to see that. Take care and thanks for the comment!
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Believe it or not, the only big swarm of bees I’ve seen was on a sailboat bimini in a local marina. See? I didn’t realize until a couple of years ago that our native bees tend to live more solitary lives, and don’t swarm. The few bee keepers I know seem to agree that even when the honey bees are in a huge swarm, they’re not really interested in declaring war on humans — they just want to find a new home and settle down for the bee equivalent of Netflix and chill!
However: I have learned three important lessons about bumblebees. Some nest in the ground, they don’t like to have their nests disturbed, and they can sting more than once. (In fact, one can sting at least six times. Sigh.)
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Hello Linda! I watched a guy capture a HUGE swarm of bees on YouTube. I mean HUGE! The guy had a box on the bed of his truck under the hive and said when he put the queen in the box, he would shake the branch, the swarm would fall onto the bed of the truck, and then they would march into the box. I watched the whole video and it was exactly what happened. He reached into the swarm, found the queen, shook the branch and most of the swarm fell off onto the bed. The bees weren’t happy and thousands started flying around. The ones that fell on the bed of the truck immediately started moving toward the box and going inside. He is very experienced and has several videos of retrieving bees.
There are a lot of bumblebees here but I have never had any bad experiences with them. They are too busy to bother me and I never bother them either. Bees and wasps are no threat to humans unless they feel threatened by us. I haven’t even had bad experiences with Yellow Jackets or hornets. I did get stung by a Yellow Jacket a few years ago when mowing with the tractor, but apparently, I ran over the nest. I am very surprised I only got stung once. The bad thing was when I got stung on the back of the neck, I immediately swatted at it, knocked off my John Deere cap given to me by a neighbor when I lived in Mississippi, and ran over it with the mower. The bill of the cap was torn off. GEEZ!
I assume you are saying “you” were stung at least six times by the bumblebee? That is definitely something you will remember. 🙂
I hope you are doing well. Take care and thanks for the comment!
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Yep, it was me. The nest was hidden beneath piles of dead grass, in the ground. I accidentally kicked it, and Mama Bee wasn’t happy. Who knew a bee could move so fast? Ankle, calf X2, knee, and thigh X2. Obviously I didn’t die, but for a brief moment it seemed like a good option!
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I bet you did a dance. Someone should have taken a video and posted it on YouTube. It may have gone viral. 🙂 How old were you at the time?
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Uh… I think I was 73 at the time…
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HOLY CRAP!!!
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OMG how so very interesting, I didn’t know all this about the queen bees and that they can determine what type of egg they will lay, and their mating system, the queen storing up to 6 million sperm, just amazing.
Actually, I didn’t know any of this, I do know that if we don’t protect our bees they are in danger of becoming extinct and that is a danger to our wellbeing. Thanks for a great post and so informative. Have a great day.
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Hello Masha! We don’t realize how complex nature really is, or how fragile. Nature finds a way to survive in most situations, but when we use chemicals it threatens their very survival. Just think of the damage being done in rainforests throughout the world. We have to understand that nature is part of us and it is our responsibility to take care of it. I hope you are well. Take care and thanks for the comment!
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Very interesting information about bees. I’m amazed that the sperm can last the lifetime of the queen bee. I wonder how she determines the sex of a bee.
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Hello Helen! I learned A LOT while writing this post but I did not see anywhere where it tells how the queen determines the sex of the bees. Like when she knows it is time to leave the old nest and she lays virgin queen eggs, and the drones make queen cells all at a specific time. Knowing what is needed and communication between the bees must trigger the response. I hope you are doing well. Take care and thanks for the comment!
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I’d love to know more about how bees communicate – such fascinating creatures.
I hope you are well, too.
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There is a lot online about bees and LOTS of videos on YouTube. I am doing great!
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😊
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I’ve never seen a swarm, but once I recovered I’d definitely get someone with knowledge to move them. Bees are fascinating creatures on so many levels. Last year, I saw bees every time I was in the garden. This year I’m not seeing a lot. The only ones I’m seeing are those pesky yellow jackets. I’d much prefer working amongst those beautiful bumbles.
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Hello Judy! I think it is best to have a beekeeper take the bees. Best for the bees so someone can move them to a location with a good and stable supply of food. Bees are truly amazing creatures! I don’t see many honeybees unless there is a bush or tree that is blooming and the bees are there by the thousands. I see more bumblebees than any other type. I don’t see many Yellow Jackets, either. I do, however, have plenty of wasps… They also have a function, but can sometimes nest in the wrong places. The barn is full of mud dobbers but they are OK. The paper wasps are a different story and I like to know where their nests are so I can either avoid them or remove them. I hope you are well. Take care and thanks for the comment!
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