A single bee can't live alone, so a colony can't make copies of itself one bee at a time. Instead, the whole colony divides. That's a swarm.
Why they swarm
In late spring, a strong colony gets crowded, with plenty of young bees and a queen laying flat out. The workers start building a few queen cells and raising new queens. Just before the first new queen emerges, the old queen and roughly half the workers leave in a roaring cloud. The bees left behind get a new queen and carry on.
Before leaving, the swarming bees fill up on honey, enough to build new comb in their new home. With full stomachs and no home to defend, they're usually very gentle.
The cluster
Within a few minutes the cloud settles into a hanging cluster, often the size of a rugby ball, on a branch, fence or post near the old hive. This is only a resting place. Scout bees fly off to look for a new home: a hollow tree, a chimney, a gap in a wall, or a beekeeper's empty hive.
The scouts come back and dance on the surface of the cluster for the places they've found. Better sites get more enthusiastic dances and more scouts go to look. When enough scouts agree on one site, the whole swarm lifts off and flies there together. This can take a few hours or a couple of days.
"A swarm in May…"
Beekeepers have an old rhyme:
A swarm in May is worth a load of hay; a swarm in June is worth a silver spoon; but a swarm in July isn't worth a fly.
An early swarm has the whole summer to build up and make honey. A late one struggles to be ready for winter. In 2026, one of our colonies threw three swarms. The first of them became our strongest colony, and made most of our honey.
If you see a swarm
- Stay calm and keep your distance. Keep children and pets back.
- Don't spray, smoke or water it. It only makes the bees defensive.
- Tell a beekeeper. If you're in or near Newton Abbot, report it to us and James will get a text. Otherwise, the British Beekeepers Association lists volunteer swarm collectors by postcode.
A beekeeper will usually shake or brush the cluster into a box, and let it settle there in the evening. Then it goes into a hive and a new colony begins.