The Swarm!

Sounds scary doesn’t it? After all, what could be more frightening than a large, moving dark mass of loudly buzzing insects with barbed weapons attached to the end of their bodies? It reminds me of the 1978 Warner Bros. classic Si-Fi movie of the same name, directed by Irwin Allen. Starring an A-List cast, the movie plot is based on an enormous swarm of killer bees intent on destroying mankind! So, with many stories like this one out there, is it any wonder why the humble honeybee gets such a bad rap?

Honeybees are kind of lumped in with other stinging insects in the minds of most people. If anything, one should attribute this hostile reputation to the much more ferocious and carnivorous wasp or hornet. Wasps and hornets will sting you, painfully, and live to sting another day, while the honeybee if she should sting you in defense of her hive or her life, will die. The small stinger that she “got you” with, also pulled out her abdomen and killed her immediately thereafter. Interestingly, a Queen bee can sting you and live as her stinger is designed differently from that of the worker bee, but this would be highly unlikely as she rarely leaves the hive, unless, of course, she is ready to swarm!

The day before yesterday, I happened to be out walking by our pond when I heard it. That unmistakable sound. I caught my breath and a sharp sensation of dread fell over me. The words “Oh No!” sprang from my lips. There is nothing like that sound - the loud, persistent sound of many thousands of bees buzzing at full volume and flying seemingly aimlessly around in a cloud of activity, before finally settling somewhere in a giant, clustered, hanging bee ball. For first-time beekeepers like John and I, this is a highly intimidating situation. For veterans, this is par for the course. In fact, most veteran beekeepers anticipate capturing wild swarms. Not only will they add more hives to their bee yard, but a large cluster of bees like this is highly valuable when you consider that a mere three-pound starter box of bees is $150 or more.

I immediately called John, who was doing some work across the street at the farm, and he came right over. We stood looking up at the giant bee ball that hung from a tree branch thirty feet above us. Oh, what to do, what to do? We decided to get one of our deep brood boxes containing some old honey and brood frames and placed it on a pallet under the tree directly under the bee ball. Next, John climbed a tall step ladder and attempted to knock the ball, or part of it, down into the box with a bee brush attached to a long apple picker pole. Sometimes this works if scout bees find the box and go tell the Queen and the rest of the bee ball that they have found a great new place to live. That did not work this time as the bees were clustered too high in the tree and we could not knock enough bees off into the box to make the difference. We decided to leave the box there overnight and see if anything happened by the next morning.

Bright and early we were up and out of the house, clad in our bee suits and gloves, to check the box, but to no avail. The bees were still up in the tree, quietly hanging out, and it did not look like they were going anywhere anytime soon. What is our next plan now? We decided to try to entice the bees into a swarm trap using a small, cardboard “nuc” box (nucleus box for small, temporary bee colonies), liberally dosed with lemongrass oil which bees love, and then hoist it by rope up the tree, placing the entrance of the nuc right next to the bee ball. We got out the longest extension ladder we own and placed it against the tree. Then we secured the now very aromatic nuc to one end of the rope, and a brick to the other end with which to throw up and over the branch closest to the bee ball so that we could hoist the box up from the ground. As I stood by the deep box on the ground directly under the bee ball, holding the lower branches of the tree out of the way to make sure the box didn’t snag on the way up, John climbed the ladder and prepared to toss the brick and rope over the branch. Although his aim was great, especially with his precarious position on the ladder, the brick just ever so slightly clipped the tip of the bee ball and, right there and then, the bees swarmed again (o.k., deep sigh here)!

We followed the swarm around our yard for about ten minutes or so before the bees chose their next landing spot. It happened to be in a pine tree in our yard. We stood for a minute or so in the middle of the swarm as they flew all around us. I felt as though we had landed smack dab in the middle of a loud, buzzing mini-tornado, which of course, we had. It was awe-inspiring, and at the same time daunting, to be so up close and personal with a natural phenomenon like this. This time, we secured the nuc to the top of a step ladder with a short bungee cord and set it on top of our picnic table, with the opening of the nuc now inches from the bee ball. For us, that was all we could do at this point, and, according to a veteran beekeeper from our Bee Association, who gave us some excellent advice that we will use in the future, it was now a waiting game.

A couple of hours later we went to see if our efforts had paid off. Upon first inspection, we thought that it had as the bee ball was now gone and quite a few worker bees were hovering around the nuc entrance. Could they be inside possibly? Alas, as soon as we took the nuc down we could tell, just by the weight of it, that the bees were not inside. Wherever they decided to fly off to, we hope they found a nice home, preferably somewhere in a hollow tree trunk or something like that, away from any inadvertent interactions with humans, unless of course, a fellow beekeeper found them and decided to give them a lovely hive to live in. Free bees for whoever that may be – woohoo!

This was a great learning experience for us. Even though I felt like we had failed, we had not. In reality, swarming is a normal and natural occurrence in honeybees, and it is an extremely strong instinct and drive for them to want to do this. It ensures that wild bee populations are out there in the natural world and reproducing. Swarm season can begin as early as late March and last until the beginning of June, and beekeepers everywhere prepare for this time of year by keeping necessary equipment handy and carefully monitoring hives for any swarm activity. Inevitably, swarms are lost but this is not a bad thing for the natural order of things.

Swarms happen in all locations, suburban or urban, everywhere in the world. In fact, last summer John and I were walking up Lexington Avenue in New York City at about 39th Street, and right there in the middle of a very busy thoroughfare, in one of the world’s largest cities, we found ourselves in the middle of a bee swarm. The NYPD does have a beekeeper on hand just for such instances. While most people would think this a scary experience, this is actually when honeybees are the most docile. This is because they have no brood to protect, and they have packed their bags, left home, and are just looking for a new place to live. In “bee speak” they have gorged themselves on honey from the hive for food for their road trip, and are very much preoccupied with finding that great new bee mansion for the Queen. Also, because they are so engorged with honey, stinging you at this point would be like trying to run a marathon after a Thanksgiving Day meal – they just really, really don’t want to.

Perhaps the next time you are out and about on a sunny day and you spot a honeybee, maybe take a moment and watch her. Her energy and enthusiasm for her work, collecting pollen or checking out anything sweet (yes, you picnic goers), is very entertaining and inspiring. Stay very still if you can, don’t swat, run or scream, and she will finally fly off after checking things out, carrying upwards of 35% of her body weight in pollen back to her hive. In her short lifetime, which is about six weeks in the Summer or a few months over Winter, depending on when she was born, this honeybee will help her colony collect approximately 100 pounds or more of pollen. That hive will not only produce honey, but beeswax, royal jelly, and propolis, all used for many things like candles, food and cleaning products, cosmetics, health and beauty aids, and so much more. In working in partnership with honeybees, we humans reap the vast majority of the benefits, and derive so very many sweet rewards in return.

K.