It’s that time of year again when the bees are swarming and I’m busy collecting them or at least trying to in my own apiary. It’s also the time of year when the phone starts ringing, usually because people have a colony of bees that has taken up residence somewhere in their house and this is something I've been meaning to put in print for years.
To start I’ll provide a little simple background on what a
honey bee swarm is and why they do it as it’s not something everyone
understands or knows about unless they keep bees.
A honey bee colony is a group of bees made up of tens of thousands
of individual insects that are continually dying and being replaced, the bulk
of the bees are “workers”, (sterile females), with a smaller and more variable
number of drones, (males), depending on the time of year and usually with one
Queen, (there are exceptions to the latter but that’s not important here).
Being a colony or a functioning whole it has to find a way
to reproduce itself, this is achieved by splitting into two and this is
where swarming comes into play. It has to divide because in the same way that
individuals die entire colonies will also fail, (die out), from time to time
and balance needs to be maintained.
Following the winter and usually sometime around the middle
of April until the end of May the colony population should have grown back to
full strength – what this is in numbers will depend on the specific genetics of
the colony and how much space they have but could be as much as 70,000 bees or
even more.
At this point it is likely that the colony will prepare for
swarming and then usually on a warm day, often between 11am and 3pm, the existing Queen will leave the colony
with about 50% of the colony, fly a short distance and form a cluster hanging
on just about anything, a bush, a branch, a fence etc. Mostly this will be
comprised of young bees that have filled up with enough honey to meet the needs
of the coming 10 to 14 days while they find and start to construct a suitable
“new home”.
The swarm will remain suspended like this for as little as
20 minutes if they have already chosen a new home or for as long as a week or
even more if they struggle to find somewhere but speed is of the essence in having them captured and collected !!
NOTE: It’s important to understand that only honey bees
swarm and form large clusters.
CLICK ON IMAGES TO ENLARGE.
So if having failed to capture them for one reason or
another they will in most cases quickly find somewhere to install themselves,
move in and immediately start to make comb. Comb construction is rapid, it has
to be because they have nowhere to put stores and nowhere for the Queen to put
her eggs and new bees to be raised. They will always occupy an enclosed cavity
apart from when exceptionally they fail to find somewhere suitable. These
“cavities” can be almost anything, a hollow tree, a compost bin, an old
discarded water heater or other drum, an old wine barrel, the list is endless
but over the last 10 / 20 years they have been increasingly using peoples
houses in rural France and there is a perfectly logical explanation for this
connected in large part to the arrival of large numbers of immigrants, mainly
from the UK.
These immigrants when they arrived from the UK
immediately saw the potential for “renovating” all these old rustic stone
properties which included converting the open greniers, (the upper floor), into
living space. These open upper floors had traditionally only been used for
storing food and other items and provided nowhere interesting for bees. So with
these conversions and modernisations various new places for honey bee colonies
have been created, notably in the space between the boards that support the
roof tiles and any fitted ceiling that follows the line of the roof, any
plasterboard dry lining that leaves a space between it and the house walls and in
the space that is left when the outside and inside house walls are built up to
the roof, (this space of perhaps 15 to 20 cm was traditionally left open), and
in chimneys that have been fitted with a wood burner flue or with some other
cap that gives the bees something to build in. Oh, and one more place particularly in houses
that are left empty, the space between the window and the shutters if they are
left closed.
Given that to remove a honey bee colony it’s necessary to
gain access to the entire comb structure, AND DON’T LET ANYONE TELL YOU
OTHERWISE, the practicality of removal will depend on exactly where it is. People
will talk of “trap outs” and “bleed outs” but none of these removes the
colonies and only traps the foraging bees leaving the Queen and colony core in
place.
Starting with the relatively easy type between window and shutters
this in my experience can usually be dealt with starting in the late afternoon
and finished by dusk but may well take longer if well established.
In a roof requires removing a section of roof or interior
ceiling, usually possible but not always straightforward depending on the exact
situation, (I no longer go on roofs to remove bees although I have completed a large number of
removals “from above”). It should be possible to complete in a day or two.
Behind plasterboard is the same, it requires removing a
section of boarding, should be reasonably OK and maybe up to a day or twos work.
Same again if in any cavity formed at the top of the
exterior wall if it’s possible to get at without too many complications.
Removal from chimneys as a rule is out of the question.
Now we come to pre emptive measures and solutions and
obviously it’s best as with most things in life to prevent rather than having
to cure.
As already mentioned should you see a swarm of bees
clustered outside anywhere call a
beekeeper immediately and without delay - LISTS HERE.
Should you notice bees congregating or flying around your
chimney light a slow smoky fire and keep it burning throughout the hours of
daylight and do this until all bee activity ceases, you can also try this
during the first few days after a swarm has arrived with it has to be said
mixed results. It won’t work once the colony has settled in.
Should you see bees congregating or flying around cracks or
holes in your house walls or in your roof and providing it’s an accessible area
you can stuff wads of kitchen roll or something similar soaked it cheap
perfume, aftershave or deodorant into the crevices etc. this should deter them
in most cases.
PLEASE DON’T START SPRAYING THEM WITH DOMESTIC PRODUCTS THAT
YOU CAN BUY IN THE SHOPS AND THEN EXPECT A BEEKEEPER TO COME AND SORT OUT THE
PROBLEM WHEN YOU FIND YOU HAVE A LOT OF ANGRY BEES.
Finally if all else fails and removal isn't a viable option
I would suggest that you just live with them and be happy, consider it a privilege, large numbers of
people do and if they are in a roof they soon forget they are even there. Contrary
to many popular myths they don’t chew or eat their way through you building /
ceiling or whatever. The honey doesn’t pour out and through you ceiling etc
unless you or someone pokes the colony about – if honey fell out of the comb
evolution would have changed it a long time ago. They won’t swarm all over you
and sting you as long as you don’t get too close to the entrance to the colony which
is unlikely if they are in your roof – they only get defensive about their home
not when they are out and about foraging so it’s really no different from
having a hive in next doors garden.
Chris
