A swarm of bees in May is worth a bushel of hay;
A swarm in June is worth a silver spoon;
A swarm in July isn’t worth a fly.
This Northern Hemisphere proverb holds true here but starting with October. It neatly shows that a swarm in October will be strong and have the whole season to grow and thrive, ensuring winter survival; their value decreases through the season until they are no longer viable. Honey bees swarming is a natural function of reproduction of the hive. Bees live and die, but for their species to continue these social insects need their colony to reproduce too. While this is a natural behaviour in honey bees, likely used for about twenty five million years, they now don’t usually survive in the wild for much more than a year due to the bees’ mortal enemy - the varroa mite. In early spring bees work very hard to rear their young and bring in stores of nectar and pollen. When they deem that there is sufficient stores and bees, the swarming impulse kicks in and they begin the preparation to swarm. The worker bees build swarm cells and the queen lays eggs in these special cells, with a diet almost entirely of royal jelly, these queens-to-be develop in their cells. The old queen is then put on a diet and chased around to help her to get fit enough to fly.
Nine days later, the queen cells are capped over, this is the signal for the old queen and up to half of the workers who have filled their honey stomachs with honey to depart. In the next week a new queen will emerge and usually kill her royal sisters in their cells. She then goes out on her mating flight and if successfully mated, will stay in the hive laying eggs until it is her time to swarm.
When leaving a hive the swarm will settle on a branch, fence post, eaves of a house or similar about 50-100m from the hive. They will stay there for up to a week but usually a day or two until scout bees find their forever home and then they will depart. It is in this temporary state that they are easiest to capture. If you see a bee swarm, the best thing to do is call an experienced swarm collector, they are volunteers and don’t usually charge anything. You could ask on your local community page for swarm collectors or check out Auckland Beekeepers Club website, they have dozens of swarm collectors on their list and will quickly and efficiently collect the swarm, rehousing and treating them for mites and checking for any other diseases. When the swarm has been collected it is taken to the beekeeper’s apiary (where their hives are).
An interesting fact about bee swarms is that honey bees are at their most placid when swarming; remember that bees are defensive not aggressive. When they are swarming they don’t have brood or food to protect, so will not attack (that’s only in the movies or in the Americas with their Africanised bees). Rather than being scared of 8,000 venomous insects on the rampage, marvel at the wonder of nature in all her glory.
A Southern re-imagining of the proverb -
A swarm of bees in October is worth a field of clover;
A swarm in November is worth a silver sliver;
A swarm in December isn’t worth a feather.
Ken Brown, President of Auckland Beekeepers Club
Apiculture Tutor with Land Based Training Ltd
