okay so today is Tuesday September 10th this is a frequently asked questions
answer to Allen lyndale a question you might clarify he says and swarms is a
queen ejected because she's bad or is the colony thriving so what I'm gonna
show you here is the swarm of bees of course what happened we're just gonna
answer a lot of general questions about bees here they have landed on the spruce
tree and this happened of course today September 10th late in the year this is
a large swarm we're gonna talk about wide bees swarm in the first place so
they've obviously come from a healthy colony although when we throw a monkey
wrench in that if the conditions inside the colony that they're living in are
not good bees have a tendency to get nervous and to swarm out of it also if
the Queen that is laying eggs in that colony begins to lay sporadically starts
to lay less frequently or in some way it doesn't please the colony workers
specifically the nurse bees they are going to get rid of that queen how do
they do it well they'll start building supers eat your cells super seeds
ourselves aren't Queen cells that are built out of the face of a brood comb
normally now what's the difference between that and a swarm cell which is
for a queen swarm cells are generally on the edges of the brood frames and that
would be your healthy reproductive behavior of the colony so it is healthy
for bees as warm what we're looking at here is not the end of the world sure
it's late in the year that's not great their chances are not good when you hide
them up you're gonna have to feed them but how did we get here why are they
swarm in what's going on you hear a lot of beekeepers talk about specifically
beginning beekeepers I don't keep my bees how do I keep them from swarming
what happened what's wrong nothing is wrong
bees are supposed to swarm if you have a healthy animal no matter what the
species is it is designed to reproduce what we're looking at here is healthy
reproduction of a bee colony so the old Queen departs the new Queens have not
yet hatched inside the colony so in the hive there would be Queen cells already
constructed and there would be developing Queens in those cells are
ready and they do not have before the old queen is driven out so also what
happens while those new Queens are developing inside their queen sounds the
old Queen the existing queen is being pushed around by the nurse bees and
they're holding back on some of her feed remember the Queen is fed and groomed
and cared for by nurse bees inside the Beehive so they stop caring for they
stop feeding her why well she has to lighten up so she can fly and in the
meantime while she's lightening up so that she can fly plus they chase her
around and stop her from laying eggs so when you have a queen that's about to
depart and a colony that's about to swarm you might see a few our eggs you
will still see open brood if you're lucky and plenty of capped brood because
a good queen departing in a healthy way leaves a lot of captive breeding and
replacements behind how many of the bees are we looking at here this was
obviously a big colony we're looking at about 10 pounds of bees here thousands
of bees what's this swarm composed of well you
can see that there are lots of drones male bees so they're bringing their
reproductive genetic stock with them there are the workers
lots of old workers in here too you'll notice they're older because you're
gonna see that their wings are tattered that there are fuzz is worn off of their
thorax and that they've really seen a lot
of foraging activity and worked hard for the Queen that they've left with now
they've also loaded up on resources click at the abdomens cursors ahead then
the part that the wings are attached to we slowed it down here for your viewing
pleasure the part that the wings are attached to
is the thorax that's where all the muscle is that's where all the energy is
generated and then there's the abdomen look at the abdomen on all of these
worker bees fully extended why because they filled their honey crops before
they left they gorged on the stored resources inside the hive they departed
from they need that number one so they can stay warm and survive it's gonna
rain we have cold nights right now dropping down into the 40s
Fahrenheit and they need to keep the Queen warm and preserve her while they
do what well you're gonna send out scouts everywhere how far to the scouts
fly sometimes several miles they're looking for a cavity a suitable cavity
for things warm to move into and when they do that what are they gonna have to
do they're gonna have to build gum and they're gonna have to have honey
resources and they're gonna have to have Paul on so they can start with brood so
you will see workers in here with pollen on their legs you'll see drones which
are the male genetic stock they go with them in case other things happen and
they fail let's say the Queen died let's say the colony failed the drones for as
long as they can will continue to fly and search for a reproductive
opportunity with a virgin queen from another colony this is how bees
guarantee their existence they have to reproduce they're not designed to just
move into a box and spend their lives in that box and never depart honey bees as
a super organism have to reproduce and that's what we're looking at here this
is the old colony and I know that sounds backwards the old colony you might think
exists in the box that they left but that's
actually the new colony the old colony has departed out with the old in with
the new so the new colony is behind the new Queens will hatch out and that
doesn't bother me you know why because the queen is less than a year old going
into winter with lots of resources has a very good chance of surviving our
northeastern United States winters and here again we've slowed this down a lot
this is at 20% normal speed and it's so that you can see the beads that are
flying around they are still joining the cluster see that one landed right there
on the right and they're just flying up and attaching themselves they're homing
in on that pheromone and so they're gonna tighten up the cluster is gonna
quiet down and the bees are gonna pack very tightly together and of course
they're just clinging to one another so the beads that are closest to the branch
and in this case it's a fir tree those are the ones supporting the rest of the
colony with their little toes hooked on to bits and pieces of the tree branch
for some reason they like this spruce tree we catch several swarms off of it
and you can see that these bees are actually very healthy they're all well
fed they're flying well and guess what else
you're not threatened often you'll see people find a cluster of bees on a fence
post or a tree or a bush in their yard and someone will rush out there like a
hero and spray them with insecticide so one of the things I would like to
explain for those who are not beekeepers who might be looking at this and
wondering what a swarm of bees is all about they are non defensive they have
nothing to defend and they have everything to save they want to save
their resources every bee that sting someone is a dead bee so that's a loss
to the colony so obviously they don't want to sting for no reason obviously if
you put your finger on one and push it and force your hand they would have to
sting but I'm standing right next to this one
making this video and now of course when another slow motion mode but I am not
protected I don't have gloves on I don't have a bee suit why because this is a
swarm of bees looking for a new home they are migrating and not defending
their position and you can see here that this is in several clusters so they've
all clumped on two different branches in this tree and you can see that they are
all climbing and this is in slow motion so you can see that they're all moving
up and following this trail they're following the pheromone from the NASA
and off land of the bees and they're following the fair amount of the Queen
so eventually even though there are several clusters on this tree in
different little groups if you ran up and try to bag them all individually
that would be a lot of work and not necessary they are going to combine into
one central cluster and then by tomorrow morning they will be tightly packed and
easy to collect so instead of collecting them now we're making this video and you
can see that these are workers worker bees are females and you can see by
their head shape and their body size that they are different from the drones
and when you see it round there's one right there dead center large eyes that
come completely together it's much bigger further see the shiny black I
don't just blow my finger there oops I think I went right into the swarm
cluster by the way this is not a brave move this is not a bold move this is not
a gutsy move honey bees in a swarm cluster as I mentioned are non defensive
why am i touching these bees with my bare hands because I want to give you a
visual example of how non-threatening they are I don't want you to rush out
and of course touch the bees in the way I am but I also don't want you to be
afraid when you see a cluster of bees a yard and they're in a tree or a bush
they are not wanting to sting you remember
they're saving all the resources they have they're trying to bring them with
them and they're gonna start a new home somewhere else now the perfect sized
home for this group of bees right here this swarm would be a single 10 frame
deep laying straw box with a solid bottom in a cover and a telescoping
cover and then they would have to be fed this time of year it would be fed sugar
water 50/50 the good news is we also have a strong nectar flow on the asters
are just beginning to come in the goldenrod is still strong their greatest
protein source is pollen and the pollen is coming in heavy so even though it is
September 10th which is late in the year where I live
the resources are going to continue for several weeks so this collection of bees
has a great chance of surviving actually why well because there's so many of them
if this were a tiny cluster they wouldn't have enough bees to warm brood
once they start that and provide foragers to bring in more resources so
if you've got a cluster of more than 5,000 bees in this cluster easily is
more than 5,000 bees you've got enough bees to start a
healthy colony now once they get in their box they're gonna go straight to
work if you have a box with drawn-out calm and they're way ahead because that
means they can start bringing in pollen resources nectar resources and the Queen
can start playing right away if they find a wild cavity chances are that
cavity was inhabited before by other feral bees and then they would likewise
be able to move into that and maybe take over some abandoned comb that's in there
and then they would have a fast start so they have enough bees to provide forage
resources for this colony they have enough bees to stay inside the colony
and provide warmth and protection for the brood when the Queen starts to lay
her eggs now once they get into that new box how long will it be before they're
hatching out new bees and replenishing their stocks
well if there's already drawn-out comb and resources where they're going we're
looking at 21 to 30 days before you start seeing new adult bees emerging
from their cells so do we have that much time left here we are September 10th
October 10th they would be hatching out at maybe 1300 to 1500 new bees a day and
I think their chances were surviving winner in that circumstance would be
good so here they are and all I wanted to do they show you what a swarm looks
like caution you that swarm should not be killed please don't call an
exterminator and have them sprayed call a beekeeper if you're not a beekeeper
yourself then I hope that this video will serve to calm you down a little bit
people fear what they don't understand and what I want you to understand is
that honey bees are just on the move swarms are natural reproduction and
personally I don't feel that swarms should be stopped all the time
now sometimes bees will swarm because they don't have enough space inside
their hive they can be honey bound the population can grow too big the
beekeeper may not have added enough boxes or you may want your hive to be a
specific size and not any bigger and you may want to allow swarms to happen for
many years I allowed swarms to happen as part of my research on honey bee swarm
behavior so now when they swarm I don't always see it as a bad thing I see it as
an opportunity to learn and in this case to teach and share what a swarm looks
like and what it really is how long will they hang here they could actually hang
on this treat for several days their goal of course is to send out their
Scouts in every direction for those Scouts to come back do their waggle
dances encourage other bees to go and check out the spaces that they've found
and then they will all collectively pick a spot to move to its part of the
honeybee democracy if you haven't read that book by Thomas Sealy I
I recommend it because it shows how the social order of bees works how there's a
consensus how just one bee doesn't get to fly out find a place to live come
back to Leo's and they all leave this swarm of bees will wait until many
foragers come back with the same information with the same approval of
the space that they hope to occupy and once there is a consensus throughout
this warm and they will all depart all of a sudden how fast is a swarm travel
when they leave and go to a new location about 6 miles an hour so if you can jog
6 miles an hour and there aren't a bunch of buildings and trees and hedges and
rivers between you and where they're headed you can actually track them and
keep up with them how long does a queen live why did they get rid of her well I
can tell you for sure the Queen that's in this group is not even a year old
because all of my Queens were replaced in the early summer this year so she's
young and they could live three years but in general going into our winters
here you want to go into winter I'm not a queen breeder so I want to go into
winter with a queen that's under a year old so I'm going to close out with this
slow-motion sequence I hope you learned something about honey bees swarms why
they swarm sometimes it's healthy sometimes it's because the queen is not
performing otherwise it's just normal reproduction I hope you learn something
thank you for watching feel free to subscribe for more have a great week
you