Picking Up a Mysterious Late Fall “Swarm”
The “swarm” in question. A small clump of bees on an open branch at this time of year made no sense, but it absolutely caught my attention!
It was 44 degrees Fahrenheit this past Saturday morning when I got an email about a “swarm” that a local had up on a branch in their tree. When you get calls about swarms this time of year the first assumption most would make is that they are simply wasps, after all most can’t tell a bee from a wasp (and understandably so since they’re so closely related!) and it is normally way too late for honey bees to be swarming. Besides, honey bees almost never set up on open branches either, sites like those are way too exposed to the elements for their liking. That said, I received photos of the swarm and there was no doubt: there were honey bees clustered up on this tree!
After a bit of talking I learned that this was not a proper swarm after all, in fact these bees had been up in that tree for a month at this point. “Swarm” is normally a term describing a group of bees that go to a location to set up a new colony, but since these bees were on this branch for so long already it means they technically already were a colony! I wondered why they had not called to have someone get these bees sooner, but I later learned that the homeowner tried contacting other beekeepers to get this colony as soon as it showed up and not a single one responded. I was quick to jump on this case though, ever eager to save some bees and insanely curious about the mystery of this open air colony.
Swarms in our area are common from April through June and almost never happen after that time, but I knew of one exception to this rule: if a colony is in very poor health, they will often “abscond” from their original home and, even in the midst of freezing temps, make a “Hail Mary” effort at surviving by moving to a new location. This almost never works out well for the bees, and especially for bees that settle in a spot where they aren’t protected from the cold. I wrote back in my email: “Sadly if I don’t get these bees, they’re as good as dead. Does it sound ok if I swing ASAP since the nights are getting too cold for the colony?” I was eager to save these bees from a dismal fate, and they were eager to get bees out of their tree, so just a few moments later I had an appointment to pick them up.
When I finally saw the “swarm” they were clustered up just like in the photos I had seen, they were trying to keep themselves and their queen warm in the cold winds. I came out with three main goals: 1) to save these bees and combine them with a weaker colony I had back at my apiary 2) to test out my new personally and specially modified “bee vacuum” (new blog post coming about this soon!) and 3) to see how much comb those ladies had built in their one month stay in this tree.
Testing out the bee vac. I felt so proud that it worked so well that I didn’t even take a second to think about how ludicrous the sight was: a guy in a bee suit in someone’s backyard using a vacuum to suck up a colony!
I began to set up my equipment to take the bees. The homeowner invited their neighbor to watch a crazy bee guy use a bucket vacuum of all things to grab them, so I felt I had to successfully accomplish my goals in front of a small audience. Sure enough, the bees built a decent chunk of comb in the time that they had been there! I made sure to cut out this comb, tie it into a frame, and return it to the bees once my work was finished. The bee vacuum worked perfectly, though it definitely feels comical to put up a hose to a clump of bees and hear a cartoony “swoop” sound as they get sucked in. Finally, once I got the bees and the comb, I brought them back to the apiary and combined them with the weaker colony to bolster their strength. It was a win-win for that colony of weaker bees and for the bees I had just vacuumed up.
Whether a success is big or small is a matter of perspective. Sure, this can be seen as a small success as all I did was get some bees out of a yard. Just another day in the life, right? I prefer to see this as a big success: I was absolutely tantalized by the puzzle of a late Fall “swarm,” amazed when it turned out to be an established colony, got to test out my new vacuum, not only saved these bees but saved one of my colonies too, and finally got to take another step forward on educating others about the wonders of the honey bee.
