21/05/2026
Swarm collection:
(Please use this link if you have a swarm near you: https://www.bbka.org.uk/find-a-local-swarm-collector)
I'll post some more details about how & why honey bees swarm another time but the short answer is "to create a new colony" - a swarm comprises a single queen (mated or not) and a sizeable proportion of the flying bees from an existing colony. When they're ready to go they rush out of the hive and then settle nearby (usually less than 50m away) before sending out scouts to locate their new permenant home for them to move on to, which they tend to do within a couple of days.
The survival rate of swarms is pretty low and people tend not to be too happy when they move into their chimmy or walls so we try to collect them when we're able.
As long as the weather is nice, the bees are somewhere accessible and recently arrived then swarm collection is usually qutie straightforward. When they are gathered in a cluster like this, with their stomachs full of honey (ready to make a good start in their new home) they are at their most passive and stings are very rare. I still stick my suit on, just in case, but often you could do this in shorts and a t-shirt without any bother.
The process (in a nutshell) is:
Locate the swarm.
Drop them into a box (ideally a nuc with some frames in) but this can just be a cardboard box (an old bedsheet also helps).
Wait for them to gather in the new box.
Take them away.
In an ideal world the swarm will be hanging as a single neat inverted triangle from a smallish branch (but they are so often less helpful and will be high up in a tree, in a tangle of brambles, in a 'splat' on the ground or wrapped around a fence post or a brick wall.
Getting them in a box is easy enough when you can just clip the branch and smartly shake them in, if not then they can be scooped up by hand or with a piece of cardboard and they can be encouraged onto a frame with wax in. They can also be moved using gentle smoke, blowing or 'Bee Quik' or similar. The key is to get the queen into the box - she'll be at the centre of the swarm and where she goes they go. If the bees are on the ground just putting a box over the top of them (with a small gap) is often enough - their instinct is to crawl up and usually will gather in the top of the box for you.
Once the bees (the queen!) are in the box they will stick their backsides in the air and start fanning their Nasonov glands to attract the other bees to where they are. This can take 5 mins to a couple of hours. Smoking, removing etc the branch where the swarm used to be will help stop the flying bees returning to that location and encourage them to find the box.
Once they're safely in then, again ideally, best to wait until its cold/dark and they'll all be in side the box and easy to close up and move. If they are left too long then there is a chance the scouts will keep flying and find a new home anyway and the whole swarm will (very frustratingly!) just pour back out and head off.
