![]() Swarms fly relatively short distances from their original home before landing on a structure on which the workers will gather around the queen. Typically, one young queen becomes the new egg-layer within the old nest site after the swarm has left. In preparation to leave, the worker bees make special brood cells that become new queens. The old queen loses weight and leaves with about 60 percent of the worker bees to look for a new home, and this unit is called a swarm. The crowded colony decides to split into halves. It is the crowding of the nest that triggers swarming behavior. A hollow tree may comfortably accommodate a colony with 40,000 bees, and the explosive growth of the spring produces a very crowded colony. It is the rapid growth of bee colonies that induces them to swarm. A colony starting with 20,000 honey bees in January can grow to more than 60,000 bees by mid-April of a typical spring with good nutrition supporting that growth. The most explosive growth occurs in the spring, when the total number of flowers and the diversity of blooming plants is highest during a year. ![]() Both processes are necessary for colony growth. ![]() Honey bees need abundant amounts of pollen and nectar to feed bee larvae and to produce beeswax to make combs. These periods are followed by periods (spring and autumn) of intense flower blooms that support rapid colony growth. Harris) Swarms versus Established ColoniesĬolonies of honey bees experience seasonal growth cycles in which they slowly dwindle in size as older bees die during periods when few or no flowers bloom (midsummer and winter). Honey bees are much more prone to sting when protecting a nest. The bees were very gentle upon initial approach because they did not have a nest (built from wax combs) to defend. The swarm was basketball-sized, and it hung on a shaded limb under a large tree. The swarm had been on the tree for about 2 days before the photograph was taken. MSU veterinary student, Blake Campbell, prepares to catch a typical swarm of honey bees. This publication provides some key guidance on the relative risk of being stung from different types of honey bee colonies, describes ways of preventing honey bees from building nests within buildings, and outlines ways of removing or killing unwanted honey bee colonies. Not all masses of honey bees that appear around the home have the same tendency to sting. The primary swarm season occurs from March to June, with peak activity in May for north Mississippi and 2 or 3 weeks sooner in the southern part of the state. Beekeepers call this period the swarm season. These phone calls coincide with the spring season when honey bee colonies naturally divide to produce new colonies. Perhaps the most common phone calls about honey bees to Mississippi Extension Service offices every year are from frantic homeowners in fear after seeing a large mass of honey bees that has appeared around the home. Honey bees sting to defend their nests, and the likelihood of them stinging people and pets dramatically increases when they live close to high-traffic areas around our homes. Honey bees can become a nuisance when they choose to live in hollow trees or other natural places in our yards or within the cavities and hollow spaces in outbuildings and houses. Of course, many of us also appreciate the sweet taste of honey that comes from their hives. agriculture is about $20 billion, and most of us appreciate the importance of honey bees and our native pollinators in providing food for our consumption. Honey bees are important pollinators of agricultural crops and plants in natural landscapes.
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