Why are the bees swarming?
Why are the bees swarming?
Our bee friends have survived the winter, and are comfortably in their hive and getting ready to work as the weather is warming up. Over the winter there are worker bees, and few others to conserve resources. Once the weather warms up, and spring is in the air it is time to get busy. The queen is busy laying eggs and creating more workers and drones. The hive is expanding and getting more and more crowded
As the queen is working away she is producing her pheromones and this is transferred to the bees through food sharing. The pheromone is communicating to the worker bees to build comb, forage for food and care or the young. As it becomes more and more crowded, the bees cannot get the pheromones, and the queen will become in effect nonexistent to the bees.
Before the new queen hatches, the old queen will leave the hive with 60% of the worker bees. You will see a clump of thousands, to tens of thousands of bees moving through the air until it finds a place to perch. The queen is not a strong flyer, so the worker bees surround her to rest, as the scouts leave the swarm to find a new home. When you see a swarm, the bees are at their least aggressive, There is no home or babies to protect. They are only interested in protecting their queen. If you leave them alone, they should move on to build their hive elsewhere.
