Bee Swarms
Bee Swarm Removal
When spring arrives, the honey bee started to prepare to swarm. Many of us have seen a bee swarm while traveling or looking for a new home. It looks like a cloud of bees moving across the sky. Right before the hive splits off, the queen will lay eggs into queen cups which are made especially for queen eggs. The hive then swarms and soon afterwards, within a few days, the original hive will have multiple queens hatching out.
Each queen immediately upon hatching out will look for any other queen in the hive and they will have a fight to the death. Which ever queen is left standing is then crowned queen. She will be the new queen of the hive from then on. She then will leave the hive and mate with 15 to 20 drones. This will be the only time in her life that she will mate.
The drones are the male bees of the hive that only have one purpose in life and that is to mate once and die. They can not feed themselves, they do not work and they can not sting. Throughout the year they just take up space. They are all kicked out of the hive to die once winter approaches.
The now mated queen will spend the rest of her life laying eggs. A queen bee can lay up to 2,000 eggs per day if given the room. The queen and the drone can not feed themselves. The worker bees which are all female feed her and the drones.
The worker bees life span is only about 4 weeks long. These are the ones with the stingers that many of us have felt. During the winter they can live up to 9 months. The duties of a worker bee is to pretty much do everything. They build the hive, protect it from danger, insulate it with propolis, gather food and water, feed the larva, and they make the honey.
Bees are a very beneficial insect. Bees pollinate the farmers crops to help provide food for us. The honey that bees make is not just good tasting, it’s also good for allergies. Many people throughout the world have even used the honey bees venom for healing.
Bees start swarming in order to reproduce and start a new hive. This will result in a significant depletion of the old hive. To beekeepers, this can ruin a whole season’s production of honey.
Be wary of bee swarms mostly because bees will swarm close to their hive. While bees are typically very unaggressive during this time, they will defend the hive if threatened. Bees are usually too focused on finding another location for a hive to be aggressive towards intruders.
Swarms are most prominent in the spring time and will take place over a series of swarms. The first swarm is always the biggest and is followed by four to six much smaller swarms.
Bee swarms consist of all levels of the bee hierarchy including queens, worker bees, scout bees, and drones. They can have only a couple thousand bees up to over 30,000 bees in a single swarm.
While the previous information is very reliable in reference to honey bees, Africanized bees or killer bees are a completely different story. Killer bees tend to swarm much more often and for various reasons. Africanized bee colonies will swarm anytime food is scarce in the surrounding environment.
However, Africanized bees will also swarm while protecting their nest. This poses a much more serious threat to intruders than the honey bees present. More bees will be attacking the creature or human in a much more aggressive fashion. Also, killer bee swarms will chase any intruders for over a mile away from the nest.
If you see a swarm, contact us immediately and keep an eye on the swarm. It may move soon into your home or nearby homes. Our beekeepers will be able to capture and remove the swarm. In the meantime, continue to monitor the swarm. If the bees remain in your location, contact Bee Safe for bee removal done right and done fast.