Honey Bee Migration
Apis millifera
Description
When a hive is too large, the bees create new queens (noted above) and swarm. In a rush of activity and noise, the old queen takes off with a large contingent of the hive, leaving the emerging young queen with the resources of the old hive; the established comb, the emerging brood and the returning field bees. The Swarm sets off in search of a new home.The bees choose a large maple in Bryant and Barbara's back yard in Ohio where they rest
while looking for a new home.
The bees are shown in a cluster around the queen inside the red circle in this
picture. They wait in the shape of a beard of bees draped from the branches of
the tree. Scouts are out, looking over possible hive sites.
Sometimes a swarm will decide to make their home right out in the open, but typically they move on to another site, better protected and more suited for a home. If a beekeeper wants to catch a swarm, this is a perfect moment... they have no home and are easily within reach. All that is needed is an attractive home...
They do not feel you are a threat to their hive because there is no hive to protect. Be carful, though, sometimes a swarm will actually begin to build a hive in a situation like this. If they have even the smallest wax comb begun it means they have decided that this is their hive and home... and they will protect it.