May-June and August-September are swarm season in Western PA. Changes in temperature and light are thought to trigger swarming behavior, but in reality, nobody knows for sure why bees decide to swarm. A swarm consists of a large group of bees, typically 10,000 or more, who leave their hive with their queen to find a new home. The swarm will rest in a giant clump atop tree branches, under the eves of houses, and typically are high up, although sometimes they will rest on a lower branch, or a deck. If the swarm is less than 8 feet off the ground. a beekeeper can easily retrieve the swarm. Anything else is tricky. We are called to remove swarms that are 3 stories above the ground in a tree - no way to get that without a bucket truck and we sadly don't have that truck!
Swarms are homeless bees, and they are docile. Don't poke or spray them, and they will move on their own within a few hours or days. No need to panic: when swarming, they are not defensive unless you are harrassing them. You'll never see a "swarm" or "hive" in the ground, or inside a dumpster. Anything flying out of a dumpster is most likely yellow jackets and no beekeeper wants to deal with those! Please do not feed the bees either: we were recently called by someone who saw a bee, put out a dish of honey, and then had thousands of bees "swarming" on her deck! If we were to collect those bees, they'd be homeless and their hives would suffer from the loss. Best to let them finish eating and go home - and not put out anything to attract them. Feeding honey might seem like a good idea, but it's actually quite harmful to the bees. There are diseases that can be transmitted from one hive's honey to another and thus feeding honey, even pasturized store honey, is never safe for bees. We feed our bees their own honey, never someone elses!
The most difficult situation is when a tree is cut down and a hive discovered. In our experience, it is almost hopeless trying to save those bees. The queen must be found, the comb and brood cut out and wired into a hive box, and as much honey as possible must be saved. This is a 3-5 hour job and very dangerous. If lucky, we will only be stung maybe 20 times each. In spring, that hive has a chance; if in September, the hive is almost always doomed because there isn't enough time to prep for winter. If the queen is not found, the hive is also typically doomed, unless we can find very young eggs the workers can raise for a new queen. If it's August, it's likely too late to raise a queen and again, the hive is doomed. We won't typically "add" bees to an existing hive either; they can tell who they are related to, and adding a few extra thousand bees may not end well for those new bees.
What if you do cut down a tree and a beekeeper won't take the hive? Penn State has a program where they will take the bees, kill them and retrieve the venom to make antidote for people allergic to bee stings. They cannot use bees or yellowjackets that have been chemically sprayed. If you need those services, we don't do them however we can give you the contact info for our local rep in the Butler-Allegheny-Beaver area.
Disclaimers: Blog posts are opinions, not advice. One thing all beekeepers will agree on, is that if you ask 10 beekeepers what to do, you'll get 13 different answers. Beekeeping is alchemy, nature, and a bit of magic.
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