Swarming is a natural part of a bee colony’s life cycle. Most beekeepers try hard to stop the bees in their hives from swarming because it seems that the honey harvest is threatened if half, or more, of their livestock disappears into thin air as the swarm flies off.  On the other hand, some beekeepers just work accept nature’s way in the belief that in the long run all will be well.  Either way, as beekeepers, we might have to collect swarms and incorporate them into our stock, so it is useful to get some practice!

A local swarm lands conveniently in the grass in June this year…

So we put a carboard box over it and allow a small space for the bees to go in and out and after a couple of hours they are all settled inside the box, so obviously the queen bee is in the box too.

After laying an old white bed sheet on the ground nearby we carry the box over there and again give the bees space to go in and out as they wish…

And then in the evening we wrap-up the box in the sheet so the bees are secure inside, and take the box over to the place where we want them to establish their colony in one of our empty hives that is ready and waiting.  We unwrap the box and open out the white sheet so it forms a carpet from the box to the hive and then we shake the swarm out onto this carpet of white bed linen…

And, believe it or not, the swarm runs up the sheet into the hive… ‘mischief managed’ as Harry Potter would say!! (or would that be Fred & George Weasley?)