Swarms

A swarm of bees is an impressive sight and consists of not hundreds, not thousands but tens of thousands of bees. In flight it seems very intimidating but it will pass quite quickly and you are most unlikely to be stung.

Swarming is a natural process which occurs when a flourishing bee colony raises a new queen. The old queen often leaves taking with her up to half the workers to start a new colony elsewhere. Before leaving, the bees gorge on stored honey, so that they have a two or three day supply of food. With a full stomach and no hive to protect, the bees in a swarm are unusually docile and, provided they are not disturbed, not very aggresive. At some stage the swarm will settle and form a cluster, usually in a tree or hedge. Once a cluster forms it is unlikely to move for several hours. The bees are waiting while scouts look for a suitable place to form a new colony. This is the best time to deal with them.

The swarm cluster is a solid mass of ten or twenty thousand bees clinging tightly together, with a few hundred more buzzing around. Typically it will be a foot or so across. Don't confuse a honeybee swarm with a wasp's nest, which looks like a grey or white paper ball with only a few hundred wasps visible.

There's a good article on swarms on the BBKA website here

If you find what you think is a swarm of honey bees, leave them alone, keep others away and notify a beekeper. Your local police station or your district council may have a list of beekeepers prepared to deal with a swarm.

Members of Richmond & District Beekeeper's Association who are prepared to handle swarms or wasp nests are listed below: