Honeybee Swarm Mechanism
Like a plant that grows by producing an offshoot, a nest of bees may divide with a mature or older queen leaving the original nest, taking a large percentage of the worker bees with her in order to create a new hive. They travel perhaps twenty or more miles to a temporary new resting-place. A young queen and some of the workers remain behind. This assures a healthy increase in bee colonies, keeping hives reasonably sized. What you see in the photos below are not bees over an enclosure, but a solid blob of bees! They remained for five days only, while scout bees found a suitable new location. The colony then departed as they came.
What Risks are Involved?
It must be obvious my friend felt he was at a safe distance from the bees, since is not dressed in protective garb. Unless provoked, the bees in a honeybee swarm will be centered on the task at hand. Yet caution demands the bees should not feel threatened in any way, as they are protecting their queen.
Intervention
If a honeybee swarm is discovered, a beekeeper may be called to gather it up for installation into a manmade hive so it can be used for honey production.
Note: You might also enjoy Is It a Honeybee? Is It a Bumblebee? No, It’s a Carpenter Bee
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