What is a Swarm?
A swarm of honeybees is distinctive. The swarm in flight can be described as a cloud of bees flying excitedly. It may appear haphazard, but the bees know exactly where they are going and what they intend to do.
Swarming is natural. It’s the bees’ method of replication. A healthy honeybee colony will divide in two so that its genetics are replicated. Half of the colony takes to the air, and the remainder carries on as though nothing had happened, rebuilding colony strength and foraging for the winter that will inevitably come.
When a consensus has been reached, they take to the skies again and head for their new home. Once they have started to build comb and the queen has started laying eggs again, they are no longer a ‘swarm’; they are a colony.
The bees that are left behind have “brood”: bee eggs, larvae and pupae that will emerge and continue their work for the colony’s survival, and a few developing young queens. Here, you see ‘queen cells’: elongated cells that look like unshelled peanuts. Inside each is a queen pupa that will emerge in the next few days. The first queen to emerge will take her departed mother’s place.
In those days, honeybees were kept in ‘skeps’ – woven baskets – and honey was often harvested by killing the bees – an appalling thought nowadays! Therefore, encouraging the bees to make new colonies made sure that the beekeepers would still have bees to overwinter and start again next year. A swarm in May would build up well, whereas a swarm taken in July would struggle to reach a size that was capable of surviving winter. Now, of course, we have hives that are cleverly designed, being the right size for a colony of honeybees and allowing us to harvest any excess honey that they might store (only the excess – it would be counter-productive to take more than they can readily spare).
Every effort should be made to preserve honeybees as they are under threat.
Please Note: that beekeepers can not provide any service for wasps nests, bumble bees or masonry bees. The Local Authority may possibly provide a service for wasp nests, otherwise a private pest control contractor can be found via the telephone directory or web search.
It is reasonable for the beekeeper to be reimbursed the travel expense of attending to a swarm, and this should be mentioned before arrival so that you are forewarned and can come to an agreement. Some beekeepers collect a swarm to add bees to their own stocks, some to pass the bees on to another beekeeper (possibly a novice), others simply as a service to the public. But while the bees are being collected a nice cup of tea will rarely be declined. Every swarm that is collected will be checked and cared for.
A swarm will usually fly away within a day or so unless captured but they can be gathered easily by a beekeeper if they are on an accessible bush or tree. Sometimes the swarm is inaccessible or may have established a new home which makes them more difficult to collect. If the bees have moved into a cavity such a chimney, hollow tree or wall, then it may be impossible to collect and, if they are a nuisance, they should be dealt with by a qualified pest control contractor.
How to find your nearest swarm collector?
To find your nearest Beekeeper and to help you identify the type of bees you have please use the swarm postcode lookup on the British Beekeepers’ Association Website
A list of Hampshire Swarm Contacts from our local associations is shown below although you should first use the postcode lookup on the BBKA site to find your nearest beekeeper and local association.
| Andover | April to August | 07776429613 | Swarm Page |
| Avon Valley | April to August | 07974442680 | Swarm Email |
| Basingstoke | April to August | 07580528482 | Swarm Page |
| Fareham | April to August | 07368269491 | Swarm Page |
| Fleet | April to August | Swarm Page | |
| Meon Valley | April to August | 07951123365 | Swarm Page |
| Meridian | April to August | 07812642970 | Swarm Page |
| New Forest | April to August | 07976258062 | Swarm Page |
| Petersfield | April to August | 07531901767 | Swarm Page |
| Portsmouth | April to August | 07442583524 | Swarm Page |
| Romsey | April to August | 07469885597 | Swarm Page |
| South West Hampshire | April to August | 07561147193 | Swarm Page |
| Southampton | April to August | 07766629763 | Swarm Page |
| Winchester | April to August | 07017758191 | Swarm Page |