Steve’s bees swarmed Saturday. I was pulling weeds near the front porch and realized that I could hear the bees (turn your sound on so you can hear what I heard!). That’s not normal, so I walked down into the yard and before I got too far, I could actually see the cloud of bees.
Swarming bees may look intimidating, but they are actually quite chill. I stood in the middle of the cloud for a minute or so before I remembered to pull my phone out of my pocket and capture some footage. You can hear the buzz quite clearly in the video (along with my neighbor’s rooster). Once the bees had all gathered into the clump you can see here, we knocked them off the branch and into a temporary home. Tomorrow, Steve will put them in their permanent hive and they’ll be a nice addition to his bee yard.
I’m hoping that Steve will write up a description of why the bees swarm and what happens in a swarm. It’s a fascinating process and way more organized than it looks when you are standing in the middle of the swarm.
Want to learn more about honeybees? Dr. Jamie Ellis, a professor at the Honey Bee Research and Extension Laboratory at University of Florida, knows as much as any human on the planet about these amazing insects. His lecture about viewing the bee colony as a superorganism is HANDS DOWN the best lecture I’ve ever heard. If you can’t hear the lecture for yourself, check out this American Bee Journal article that Dr. Ellis was kind enough to share with me. And if you want to keep bees yourself, find your local bee club and be prepared for a challenge satisfying enough to engage you for a lifetime.
That’s so interesting! I went to the Fall Wildflower Festival last year at Brooker Creek and loved talking to the bee expert there. She had so much fascinating information.
My dad has bee hives and loves it. At my wedding, we gave our guests little jars of his honey. So many people dont realize how cool the process on honey making is!
I personally think that Bees only sting when they’re spooked or you intentionally bother them. I have a good friend that is a beekeeper and his honey is delicious!
If a bee stings you it hurts them a lot more than it hurts you! I used to live in a place where I slept with the window open, often bees would fly in and be on the floor. On more than one occasion I got stung because I stood up and stepped on one by accident, poor little guys!