Mitgrating swarms of bees? Is that a thing?

April 17, 2015 5:54 PM

I just moved to the southwest of the US and barely have seen a bee, but now four times in the last week I have wandered into what appeared to be (and sounded like) a moving swarm of bees (once on a hike, once in my car, twice on runs). Literally one second I hear a slight buzz, then it increases to massive buzz, then I see bees everywhere, then maybe 20 seconds later they are all gone. In all four cases the bees completely ignored me. Do I really keep seeing swarms of bees? Is that a thing? Are they dangerous? Google isn't any help.
posted by Spurious to Pets & Animals (13 answers total)

It's a thing! The queen is taking her workers to a new home. They're not super likely to attack.

Wikipedia article.
posted by moira at 5:58 PM on April 17, 2015 [4 favorites]

Yup. Sometimes when the hive gets overpopulated they take the queen to a new place. Happened to my cousin's bees not too long ago. She lost half her hive that way.
posted by MayNicholas at 6:02 PM on April 17, 2015 [1 favorite]

I accidentally biked right through a swarm of bees heading to a new home once. I was in them before I realized they were there, and then they were bouncing off my helmet and there were SO MANY BEES and I was feeling very very nervous, but they were basically intent on getting to their destination and didn't care about me. It was moving day!
posted by instead of three wishes at 6:30 PM on April 17, 2015 [7 favorites]

"Bee" aware though that, in your region, there is an increased likelihood that these are africanized "killer" bees, which tend to swarm more regularly and be much more aggressive than regular honey bees. I would give them a wide berth.
posted by 256 at 7:04 PM on April 17, 2015 [1 favorite]

My university has bits of campus shut down because SWARMS OF BEES ON THEIR WAY SOMEWHERE ELSE literally all the time (like four times yesterday I think???) So yes, definitely definitely a thing.
posted by WidgetAlley at 7:21 PM on April 17, 2015 [3 favorites]

I think the bees were probably just trying to get to their destination and were not intending to harm you in anyway. So definitely a thing for sure!
posted by BubbelGALAXY at 8:21 PM on April 17, 2015

Hive gets bigger>workers don't get enough 'face time' with the queen>workers make a new queen (by longer feeding with royal jelly)>queens fight (not to the death or anything...IIRC it's a flying contest to see who can stay above the other)>winner keeps the hive, loser leaves taking about half the workers with her (this is probably what you saw)>workers will find a convenient spot (pretty much anywhere really) and form a dense glob of solid bees around the queen as scouts fly away and back to find a new hive location (I saw one of these once in central park...so cool...right on the ground)>when a scout finds a good location, other bees will go check it out...if enough bees like it the queen will go too>New Hive! Happy Bees! 🐝
posted by sexyrobot at 10:07 PM on April 17, 2015 [23 favorites]

To add to what others have said - while it's unlikely these bees are out to get you, I do have a cousin who was nearly stung to death by bees as a child. Because of this experience, I can't tell you that there is no danger.
posted by tel3path at 4:43 AM on April 18, 2015

I had a swarm settle in my chimney once. I tried to smoke them out (in the middle of the summer!) but they wouldn't budge. They didn't attack either. Finally, I found a beekeeper who came and moved them to his hive.
posted by mumimor at 5:14 AM on April 18, 2015

Totally normal and a good sign that those bees are healthy. Bees will swarm if they're reproducing, or the nest has become overcrowded. At this time of year I'd assume a nest has split taking the old queen with it to form a new colony somewhere else. While they're swarming they have no nest to defend so the likelihood they'll attack is very low. They're trying to conserve resources while the scout bees look for a new net site.
posted by redindiaink at 5:20 PM on April 18, 2015

queens fight (not to the death or anything...IIRC it's a flying contest to see who can stay above the other)>winner keeps the hive, loser leaves taking about half the workers with her (this is probably what you saw)

Actually, it's always the old queen who leaves. And it's driven less by a lack of facetime with the queen than by overcrowding - a hive will expand to fill the space you put it in, which is why beekeepers are able to add more space for honey production and then remove that space in winter.

Given your area, they could be africanized bees, which are also more likely to abscond - ie, pick up and leave with the entire colony.
posted by showbiz_liz at 5:48 PM on April 18, 2015 [1 favorite]

"A swarm of bees in May
Is worth a load of hay.
A swarm of bees in June
Is worth a silver spoon.
A swarm of bees in July
Isn't worth a fly."

This old poem indicates that the time of year when bees swarm makes a big difference in their yield later in the year. Your bees are swarming in April, but perhaps you live somewhere warmer than England or New England, so that would account for the month. At any rate it seems that they are swarming early so their prospects are good.

If you owned property you would be hoping they would take up a new hive on your property so that your crops would be pollinated and their might be some wax and honey to harvest.

I don't know what is worth more, the load of hay or the silver spoon.
posted by Jane the Brown at 7:58 PM on April 18, 2015

I think everybody responding to this query knows exactly what a 'swarm' of honeybees is. However, after careful reading of the OP's question, I'm not sure that the OP does. When I stand under my blooming fruit tree I hear lots of buzzing and see "bees everywhere," but that's not swarming behavior. In an actual swarm they're all mostly clinging together, in a mass. Understanding honey bee swarms is a YT video which shows several examples. During a swarm, the workers have all gorged themselves on the hive's honey before departing, so they are EXTREMELY docile -- they won't hurt you, in fact they're so full, many can't bend their abdomens enough to deploy their stinger. But in my experience, random sightings of swarms are very rare -- I've only seen two in my whole life.
posted by Rash at 8:54 AM on April 19, 2015