The Swarm

"The bees are swarming! " "The bees are swarming! " This was once a call sufficient to set a whole family in commotion. Excitement permeated the entire neighborhood and every person within reach of the sounds would join in the ringing of bells and the beating of tin pans in an effort to settle the bees. Many a time in my childhood did I join in the racket under the impression that a big noise would cause the bees to cluster and that without it, the swarm might leave.

Alas, what a creature of habit is the human animal, and how long do we continue familiar actions after the reason for them has been removed. The ringing of bells and the beating of pans when the bees swarm is a custom so old that few people remember the reason of its origin. In Europe, whence our ancestors came, where houses were close together and the bees could easily pass from the land of their owner to that of another, laws were long ago passed to require the owner of swarming bees to make a great noise to notify his neighbors so that he could follow his bees and claim them without danger of conflict with others who might find the clustering swarm on their property and assume they came from their own hives. So long did this custom continue in the old world that immigrants coming to this country, kept on making a racket when the bees swarmed, as a matter of habit.

Now we know that most swarms will cluster regardless of the noise and that the exceptional one will leave anyway. Again, the development of the modern system of beekeeping is such as greatly to reduce the number of swarms. In the old days, the owner of a hundred hives of bees would be kept very busy during the summer months hiving his swarms, sometimes as many as a dozen in a day. Now in a well regulated apiary there may be less than a dozen swarms in the entire summer. The beekeeper has learned that the way to get big crops of honey is to keep his bees at work during the harvest, and that to divide the working force at that time, reduces his crop accordingly. By proper management, he avoids swarming, and makes his increase artificially at the season of the year when no harvest is coming to the hive.

Swarm Behavior

When left to themselves the bees are likely to swarm at the peak of the honey flow, for at that time it is easiest for the new colony to establish itself. As soon as honey begins coming freely to the hive, the queen increases her laying until a thousand or more eggs are deposited in the cells each day. Some estimate the number as high as three thousand daily during the season of maximum production. Three weeks later young bees will be emerging from the cells in similar numbers and the population of the hive thus increases very rapidly.

At this season the queen is likely to lay eggs in all available drone cells so that drones will also be present in large numbers. Actual preparation for swarming begins with the building of queen cells. Several such cells are likely to be built and the swarm may leave at any time after the first one is sealed.

It is interesting to note that it is the old queen and the working force of old bees which go out to form the new community, leaving the established home to the youngsters. Perhaps the bees assume that the older ones, because of greater experience, are better able to cope with the problems of a new home; perhaps it is only the excitement of a holiday that attracts them, but in any case they go.

In vain I have sought to find what signal indicates the time of departure of the swarm. Sitting beside the hive in which I know ripe queen cells are present, I observe the activity of the bees as similar in every respect to others where no such swarm preparations are in prospect. The bees are coming and going to and from the field, bringing in loads of yellow pollen which are deposited in the cells and of nectar which are passed over to the care of other workers as soon as they enter the hive. Up to the very moment of departure there is the contented hum of busy labor which indicates the usual activities.

Suddenly, like the human response to an alarm of fire-there is a new and excited note, the greatest commotion pervades the hive and the inmates come tumbling out at the entrance in the greatest confusion. As fast as they can move, they come pushing, jostling and crowding like people at a circus. Every one seems in the greatest hurry and as fast as they reach the open they take wing and begin flying about in circles.

I watch closely now to see the departure of the queen. Sometimes she is among the first to leave and at other times she may be among the last. She may even fail to join in the general excitement and remain quietly within the hive. In that case, the bees after flying about for a time in joyous abandon, return again to the hive and soon all are busy again as though nothing had happened. However, once swarming preparations are made, the departure of the swarm is not likely to be long deferred and they will come out again later in the day or perhaps the next day.

The greater part of the working force joins in the exodus, and after flying about for a time with a great buzzing and humming which may be heard at considerable distance they alight and form a cluster.

Sometimes two or more small bunches of bees will gather in different places. If the queen joins one or the other of them, the flying bees will soon come to the same place and the other cluster will break up and join them. Soon they are all quiet, awaiting the return of the scouting bees which are out seeking a suitable habitation. The cluster may remain not more than half an hour or it may not leave for a day or two. More than once have I lost a fine swarm by assuming that bees would remain clustered while I finished some other task before taking time to hive them. Again I have known chance swarms to remain on a limb for two or three days before moving on.

After wildly circling about in the air for a time the bees cluster quietly for a rest before seeking a new home.

After the departure of the swarm, if the occupant of the first queen cell is ready to emerge, she is released and comes out upon the combs. If no other swarm is to be cast, she will at once seek out her sisters still within the other queen cells and destroy them. If other swarms are to follow soon, clustering bees will protect the helpless virgins.

Every day large numbers of new workers are emerging from the cells and soon the hive is well populated again. Within a few days the virgin queen will depart on her mating flight, and many of the bees are likely to go with her in what is known as an after-swarm. Sometimes other virgins will be released also and several young queens will go out with the after-swarm. Sometimes, one such swarm follows another in such frequent succession that the parent colony is so far reduced in numbers as to be worthless.

If no swarm accompanies the young queen on her mating flight, she returns to the parent hive and takes up her duties of motherhood in the same manner as her mother pursued them before the time of the swarm.