(If you should happen to see a swarm of bees in the neighborhood, you’ll want to read this, submitted by Kevin, a Wallingford beekeeper)
Bee Swarms Create a Buzz – Puget Sound Beekeepers Association wants you to be prepared to help the bees!
With recent losses of bee populations worldwide, seeing a few bees around the garden is something to celebrate. But what do you do when a few thousand bees show up?
Longer days bring a surge of blooming trees and flowers which create a short window of time for healthy honey bee colonies to split and create new colonies. This split happens when honey bees swarm: roughly 10-15 thousand bees and their queen will leave an existing colony and land upon a tree branch or side of building. Once there, this mass of bees can resemble a very large pine cone or football shaped mass. Swarming is the natural process that honey bee hives go through to create new colonies and spread their genetics to new locations.
Honey bee swarms are vulnerable outside the hive to weather, animals and more importantly people. They need to find a new home quickly. In a rural setting this is usually a hollow tree but in the city with loss of habitat this can take the form of a wall or attic of a house where they become a problem for homeowners. If you encounter a swarm it is important to remain calm and to call a beekeeper quickly before the bees leave to a new home or take up residence in an undesirable location. It is important to not kill or disturb the honey bees by spraying pesticides or even water on them.
Puget Sound Beekeepers Association offers the community a “swarm list”, a list of beekeepers who are willing to collect swarms. The swarm list should be your first resource to manage a honey bee swarm. Swarm collection usually is provided for free if the bees are within easy reach and are not inside a wall or house. Follow the directions on the list for confirming help is on the way. While you wait for the beekeeper the best thing you can do is get your camera ready and make sure people stay 10-15 feet away from the swarm.
When a beekeeper arrives they will remove the swarm by transferring them into a hive box. Bees in a swarm are less likely to sting because they have nothing to defend and are gorged with honey so they have energy to build a new colony. The beekeeper may work bare handed or in a full suit to transfer the football sized swarm of bees into a hive with a shake of a branch or by the handful if they are on a wall. Once the majority of the bees are in the hive the beekeeper will wait for any stray bees to find their way into the hive box before closing the hive up to take to their new home.
If you are in the greater Seattle area please refer to the Puget Sound Beekeepers Association (PSBA) swarm list to find a swarm catching beekeeper at:http://www.pugetsoundbees.
If you are outside of the Seattle area you can refer to the Washington State Beekeepers Association (WASBA) website to find a local swarm list for your area: http://wasba.org/local-
Thanks for helping the bees!
[Ed Note: I’m a beekeeper, as well, and lost one of my hives this Spring, so if you do see a swarm, give me a call!]
Can anything be done with bees who have lost their hive? A beehive was shipped through the Wallingford Post Office on Monday. Bees that were roaming when the hive was picked up are congregating in the postal container that still has some liquid on the bottom (honey?). Are they basically out of luck?
Yes, or liberated from worker bee slavery, who knows. Try not to get too attached to your new bee pets, I think their lifespans are like 3 weeks and these might not have much of that left. Please let us in on the story of the beehive at the Wallingford Post Office! It sounds like bees, and fluids, were escaping from the package? Was it supposed to go out on a carrier route?
No way a carrier was going to take it out. Staged outside the building on the dock; addressee was phoned twice and picked it up midday.
Well funny you should mention it — pulled into QFC early this afternoon, and there was a huge swarm of bees around the tiny tree in their front parking lot. There was a guy there — a painter, by the look of him and his truck — trying to move them into a produce box that he was firming up with masking tape, creating a mobile hive. Somehow, he was luring the bees into the box, sometimes gently sweeping them in with a small branch. I shopped, and when I came out a few minutes later, he had almost all of them in the box. I asked if he had bees at home, and he said he did
If any local beekeepers wish they had more space, we have room in our yard for a hive or two. We are near 35th and Densmore, and can help with the care and keeping of a hive if a local beekeeper is willing to set it up and harvest. Contact moi at magpie-girl dot com.
According to a server at the Blue Star, a swarm flew by in the morning on Saturday, May 31, landed in a tree across the street for a few hours, and then headed north on Stone Way toward Greenlake.