Swarm at Trowan allotments, captured in June 2018 and transferred to our Warre hive
A swarm is a wonderful and awe-inspiring sight to behold. The old queen and up to half of the colony’s inhabitants leave their home together and scout bees are dispatched to search for new quarters. The hive is left full of honey and ready for the emergence of a new virgin queen who, at the point of swarming, will still be developing inside her cell.
When bees decide to swarm away from their hive or home, the existing queen leaves with about 60% of the worker bees leaving the new queen to look after the remaining hive. This swarm can contain thousands to tens of thousands of bees and is usually a spring phenomenon. You’ll see first a mass of bees in the sky and when they’ve settled they create a large ball of bees, usually hanging off a tree. Scouter bees then go out searching for suitable cavities in which to construct the swarm’s home and will come back and report the location of suitable nesting sites to the other bees. Once decided, the bees leave their temporary location and head off to set up home. As there aren’t many suitable homes for bees (ideally a hollowed out log or a man-made hive), they will often end up choosing things like people’s rooves or chimneys. That’s why it can be a good idea to give a swarm collector a call as they often knows where the bees can be safely re-homed.
Beekeepers in St Ives
- Sam Perkin – 07897 545567 – follow him on facebook
- Lawrence Eastwood – 07706587768
In England there are quite a few swarm collectors on //www.bbka.org.uk/swarm. Put in your postcode and suggested numbers will come up. This is what popped up for St Ives, Cornwall in summer 2019 but these can change. Please note there are over 250 types of bees in the UK but there is only one honey bee. Swarm collectors generally only collect honey bees. Read more about this on the link above.
Mark Stevens: 07879423322
Mrs C Tanner: 07834 991498
Mr Paul Antonelli: 07870 780522
Mr Geoff Grenfell: 07585 042450 / 01736 711154
Mrs Jenny Lewis: 01736 753124
Mr Fred Buckingham: 07966 626304 / 01736 364182
Mr Harvey Reynolds: 07878 078 976
Mr Angelo Spencer-Smith: 07791597448
St Ives Community Orchard has a few beehives of their own but these are already happily occupied by bees so have no need for any more swarms of bees.
If you’re keen to get your own hive, go to //www.justbeeecohives.com/ to see their amazing hives.
A swarm our beekeeper Duwayne Langley captured
Our log hive, Warre hives & Kenyan Topbar hives
A skep used to capture bees
St Ives Community Orchard beehives