{"id":2350,"date":"2013-06-06T08:34:15","date_gmt":"2013-06-06T12:34:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.massaudubon.org\/yourgreatoutdoors\/?p=2350"},"modified":"2013-06-06T08:34:15","modified_gmt":"2013-06-06T12:34:15","slug":"the-story-behind-bee-swarms","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.massaudubon.org\/yourgreatoutdoors\/the-story-behind-bee-swarms\/","title":{"rendered":"The Story Behind Bee Swarms"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"You may have seen the photo of a swarm of honey bees<\/a><\/strong> on a car in Dorchester back in early May and wondered what was going on. The short story: the bees were looking for a new home.<\/p>\n

But why did they need a new home and what should you do if you are lucky enough to observe a swarm? Matthew Smith, Mass Audubon\u2019s Web Developer and hobby beekeeper, explains.<\/p>\n

Why Bees Swarm
\n<\/b>Honey bee swarms are a natural part of spring. Honey bee colonies that survive the winter begin to lay eggs and expand their colonies in early spring. By May, a strong hive could be overflowing with bees with hundreds more hatching each day.<\/p>\n

At the same time, just-bloomed flowers provide bees with nectar and pollen, which is collected and brought back to the hive. It doesn\u2019t take long for a productive colony to outgrow its hive.<\/p>\n

Bees start swarm preparations by starting to raise a few new queens. When the first of the new queens is about to emerge from her cell, the bees fill their stomachs with honey from the hive.\u00a0The old queen and about half the bees fly out of the hive in what looks like a chaotic tornado of bees. The queen lands, usually in a tree, and the rest of the bees cluster quietly around her.<\/p>\n

There they remain, usually in a volleyball-sized cluster, for a day or two while scout bees go out and look for new digs. The bees left in the hive will hatch a new queen and continue at the old location. If the swarm finds a new home safely, the colony has successfully split in two.<\/p>\n

You See a Swarm, Now What?
\n<\/b>Bees in a swarm are usually docile, if left undisturbed. In general, you can observe them from a good distance remaining very quiet. If a swarm is in the way, like it was in Dorchester, it\u2019s usually easy to find a beekeeper willing to come and get them.\u00a0Beekeepers can give the bees a home and start a new colony with the swarm. The Massachusetts Beekeepers Association<\/a><\/strong> maintains a list of local bee clubs.<\/p>\n

Learn More About Bees
\n<\/b>Several Mass Audubon wildlife sanctuaries have observation hives during the warm months including Blue Hills Trailside Museum<\/a><\/strong> in Milton, Long Pasture<\/a><\/strong> in Barnstable, and Stony Brook<\/a><\/strong> in Norfolk. Call in advance to ensure the hives are on display.<\/p>\n

On Friday, June 21, Boston Nature Center in Mattapan is hosting a free screening of the documentary Queen of the Sun: What are the Bees Telling Us?<\/a>,<\/strong><\/em>\u00a0\u00a0which takes an in-depth look at the global bee crisis.<\/p>\n

Beyond Mass Audubon, this Sunday marks the 3rd<\/sup> annual Tour de Hives<\/a><\/strong>, a day-long adventure where you visit different hives around Boston by bike.<\/p>\n

Have you even seen a bee swarm? If so, tell us about it in the comments!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

You may have seen the photo of a swarm of honey bees on a car in Dorchester back in early May and wondered what was going on. The short story: the bees were looking for a new home. But why did they need a new home and what should you do if you are lucky […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[11],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2350","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-nature-notes"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3t87A-BU","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":10939,"url":"https:\/\/blogs.massaudubon.org\/yourgreatoutdoors\/take-5-helpful-honeybees\/","url_meta":{"origin":2350,"position":0},"title":"Take 5: Helpful Honeybees","author":"Ryan D.","date":"May 7, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"Originally imported from Europe for their prized honey, beeswax, and pollination abilities, much of our honeybee population lives in beekeepers' hives, and the rest build nests in tree cavities and in the eaves and walls of buildings. Each hive consists of a queen (who lays the eggs), female workers (who\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "General"","block_context":{"text":"General","link":"https:\/\/blogs.massaudubon.org\/yourgreatoutdoors\/category\/general\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blogs.massaudubon.org\/yourgreatoutdoors\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/20\/2018\/05\/161Susumu_Kishihara12589_fi.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blogs.massaudubon.org\/yourgreatoutdoors\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/20\/2018\/05\/161Susumu_Kishihara12589_fi.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blogs.massaudubon.org\/yourgreatoutdoors\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/20\/2018\/05\/161Susumu_Kishihara12589_fi.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":12693,"url":"https:\/\/blogs.massaudubon.org\/yourgreatoutdoors\/take-5-busy-bees\/","url_meta":{"origin":2350,"position":1},"title":"Take 5: Busy Bees","author":"Ryan D.","date":"May 13, 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"It's springtime and nature is abuzz with activity\u2014literally, in the case of bees! With more than 370 species of bees living in Massachusetts, there's plenty for a budding entomologist to discover. While the more familiar bumblebees and European honeybees are social, up to 85% of bees are solitary and do\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Take 5"","block_context":{"text":"Take 5","link":"https:\/\/blogs.massaudubon.org\/yourgreatoutdoors\/category\/take-5\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Mining Bee (Genus Andrena) \u00a9 Daniel McNamara","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blogs.massaudubon.org\/yourgreatoutdoors\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/20\/2019\/05\/4624Daniel_McNamara25841.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blogs.massaudubon.org\/yourgreatoutdoors\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/20\/2019\/05\/4624Daniel_McNamara25841.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blogs.massaudubon.org\/yourgreatoutdoors\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/20\/2019\/05\/4624Daniel_McNamara25841.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blogs.massaudubon.org\/yourgreatoutdoors\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/20\/2019\/05\/4624Daniel_McNamara25841.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":9469,"url":"https:\/\/blogs.massaudubon.org\/yourgreatoutdoors\/bee-hind-this-years-camp-patch\/","url_meta":{"origin":2350,"position":2},"title":"Bee-hind This Year’s Camp Patch","author":"Hillary T.","date":"July 19, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"Every year, campers at Mass Audubon's 18 day camps and Wildwood, our overnight camp, receive a patch at the end of their session. These patches have featured everything from fireflies to fiddlehead ferns. This year's patch shines a light on bees, but not just any bee. It's the rusty patched\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Advocacy"","block_context":{"text":"Advocacy","link":"https:\/\/blogs.massaudubon.org\/yourgreatoutdoors\/category\/advocacy-2\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blogs.massaudubon.org\/yourgreatoutdoors\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/20\/2017\/07\/camppatchedsFI.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blogs.massaudubon.org\/yourgreatoutdoors\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/20\/2017\/07\/camppatchedsFI.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blogs.massaudubon.org\/yourgreatoutdoors\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/20\/2017\/07\/camppatchedsFI.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":16693,"url":"https:\/\/blogs.massaudubon.org\/yourgreatoutdoors\/celebrating-wildlife-in-massachusetts\/","url_meta":{"origin":2350,"position":3},"title":"Celebrating Wildlife in Massachusetts","author":"Kaylin D.","date":"March 1, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"World Wildlife Day is a time to appreciate and advocate for nature. 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There are two species of very similar \u201cLady butterflies\u201d that occur in Massachusetts.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Nature Notes"","block_context":{"text":"Nature Notes","link":"https:\/\/blogs.massaudubon.org\/yourgreatoutdoors\/category\/nature-notes\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blogs.massaudubon.org\/yourgreatoutdoors\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/20\/2017\/10\/GillianHenryPaintedLady600.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blogs.massaudubon.org\/yourgreatoutdoors\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/20\/2017\/10\/GillianHenryPaintedLady600.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blogs.massaudubon.org\/yourgreatoutdoors\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/20\/2017\/10\/GillianHenryPaintedLady600.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x"},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.massaudubon.org\/yourgreatoutdoors\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2350","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.massaudubon.org\/yourgreatoutdoors\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.massaudubon.org\/yourgreatoutdoors\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.massaudubon.org\/yourgreatoutdoors\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.massaudubon.org\/yourgreatoutdoors\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2350"}],"version-history":[{"count":16,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.massaudubon.org\/yourgreatoutdoors\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2350\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2372,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.massaudubon.org\/yourgreatoutdoors\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2350\/revisions\/2372"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.massaudubon.org\/yourgreatoutdoors\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2350"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.massaudubon.org\/yourgreatoutdoors\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2350"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.massaudubon.org\/yourgreatoutdoors\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2350"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}