It’s peak swarming season for honey bees, as colonies outgrow their existing homes. Don’t panic if you spot a swarm in your garden – they’re not aggressive and can be moved by an experienced beekeeper

By Robbie Baird, North Dorset Beekeepers

Ping! A fellow beekeeper has received a message on his phone, sent via the North Dorset Beekeepers’ website www.northdorsetbeekeepers.org.uk/swarm-help. Someone in Blandford Forum has reported they have a swarm of bees in their garden and has asked if we can help. The answer? Of course we can – if it’s definitely a swarm of honey bees, if we can reach it without risking life and limb, and if they haven’t moved on before we get there!

A quick call confirms they appear to be honey bees and that they’re in a bush in the front garden. It looks like we should be able to help. The race is on. We both throw what we need into the back of the car and set off for Blandford.

So, what’s caused all this?

Most likely, as the number of bees in the colony increases dramatically in spring, they simply outgrew their home. Recognising this, the bees prepare to divide the colony in two. They raise a new queen and as soon as she reaches the pupation stage in her development from an egg, the existing queen leaves the hive and takes about half the bees with her. They’ll have filled themselves with honey before leaving, carrying food to their new home. The scene outside a hive where the colony is about to swarm can look a bit scary, with loads of bees flying around in ever increasing circles. Then, the queen leaves the hive, and they all move off to settle somewhere close by – perhaps in a convenient bush or on a fencepost. Some of the worker bees become temporary scouts and set off to look for a new home. It could be a hole in a tree or somewhere less convenient to us humans, like down a chimney! Eventually, through a very democratic process of persuasion, and based on the reports coming back from the scouts, the colony decides where it’s going to live next, and off they all go again. Like most things to do with bees, how this all works out is magical.

Back in Blandford, we found the swarm in a big osmanthus shrub, about two metres above ground level and fairly easy to reach. The plan is always to offer the bees a ready solution to their home search – a woven skep or just a nice big cardboard box. Something that’s dry and dark inside will work. In this case, we used a cardboard box. The house owners told us the shrub was due to have a haircut, so we were able to remove a few of the branches, collecting them in the box. We shook the bees off the branches and turned the box upside down, placed it on a sheet, and put a wooden wedge at one side. Then you stand back and watch. There are always a few bees that continue to fly around the original site of the swarm, but if the queen has taken up residence inside the box, her workers will start fanning their wings, putting a chemical pheromone into the air, telling the remaining bees outside that “we’re all going in here”. Thirty minutes later, almost all the bees in the swarm had gone into the cardboard box. The heavens also opened, and the heavy rain probably helped them make their minds up! Job done… Well, almost. We used the sheet to wrap around the box full of bees, making it safe to transport to their permanent home. There was a perfectly prepared hive waiting for them with another beekeeper in Iwerne Minster, where they’ll be looked after as they build back to a full-strength colony during the rest of the summer.

The bees in the swarm are focussed on surrounding their queen and stick together.

Those Blandford house-owners were so grateful for the help offered by their local beekeepers that they gave us a donation towards our new honey bee centre in Shillingstone. Check out the North Dorset Beekeepers’ website for more information (www.northdorsetbeekeepers.org.uk).

You can learn more about the amazing world of the honey bee at a bee experience day, where you’ll be able to see what’s going on inside a beehive as part of a fascinating afternoon, spent with experienced beekeepers. You’ll find details at www.tickettailor.com/events/northdorsetbka. Bookings are essential.