Bees swarm to reproduce the hive.  Each year in Spring and Summer, hives produce new queens and, as they approach maturity, the old queen gathers together with many of the hive’s worker bees and sets off to start a new hive somewhere else.  If the swarm is successful, one hive has become two.  In some cases, a hive may spawn a swarm multiple times in one season.

A swarm is a very impressive sight, as thousands upon thousands of bees leave the hive in a great cloud, fly anywhere between a few yards and half a mile, and then settle into a cluster on a branch, or your mailbox, your planter, or your window sill.  They may repeat these “jumps” numerous times, resting for a few hours in between, as they scout for the perfect new home.

Many people are terrified when they see their first swarm, but fear is not really warranted.  Lacking a home to protect, a swarm has no reason to be defensive.  Beekeepers routinely handle swarms without any protective gear and, if you have ever seen someone wear a “beard of bees” you were watching someone with a swarm on his face.  Bees with a hive to protect would not be a good choice for such a stunt, but a swarm is docile.  That doesn’t mean bees from a swarm will never sting and that you should carelessly provoke them, but you can rest assured that they are not going to seek you out and attack you.

Left alone, a swarm will eventually move on to a suitable place for a new hive, which usually means you will have a few hours of entertainment and then they will leave just as they came.  However, if you are unlucky, they may have found a nice crack in your house and guess who’s coming to dinner?  In any urban area, odds are pretty good that the swarm is going to end up in a structure, whether it is yours or someone else’s.

While it is difficult to remove a hive from a house, it is easy to remove a swarm.  It only takes a few minutes.  So, if you spot a swarm, call right away.  This is a situation where an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.  We remove swarms for free within fifty miles of Moclips, which takes us about as far East as Elma.