Congregating bees

Factual Questions
1

This morning I was greeted outside my classroom by a mass of bees. Not a bee hive, mind you, but a solid mass of bees, conical in shape, literally hanging out under the overhang. The mass was roughly 10 inches in diameter at its base, and about 8-10 inches long.

We all thought it was a bee hive, but closer inspection revealed nothing but bees. After cordoning off the area surrounding the bees (all we needed was one jelly ball to nail that thing), an exterminator was called and the insects collected. We were told something about it being “bee season,” that they’re looking for a place to nest, that masses of bees like this aren’t unusual.

I’m just wondering…what the hell were they doing? And why? How does congregating by the thousands like that, in a single space, help them find a home?

Stupid bugs. And it would be on the first day of standardized testing…

Teaching: The ultimate birth control method.

Laura’s Stuff and Things

2

Your Principal explaining the low scores to the superintendent:

“But sir, those stupid bees keep bringing down the school average…now if we had more ants in the student population…”

3

They were swarming around the queen bee. Every once in a while, the current queen bee creates several eggs that are destined to become queens. They hatch, are fed “royal jelly”, and eventually pupate. After emerging as young adult “princess bees”, the first one out kills the rest and takes off to parts unkown with a section of the hive to start a new one. Since the bees are attracted to her via scent, once she lands somewhere the rest of her entourage swarms about her (which I’d imagine keeps her safe since it’s hard to suffocate an insect in that manner and not enough weight to crush her exoskeleton). Whether she was planning on building a new home there or just taking a breather, I don’t know.

“I guess one person can make a difference, although most of the time they probably shouldn’t.”

4

Are you sure it wasn’t an orgy? You know, like gnats?

5

Darn! :frowning: On behalf of beekeepers everywhere, I express my dismay that an exterminator was called and the bees (presumably) destroyed. Next time that happens, get hold of a beekeeper, who will come and put the swarm gently into a container, and will then have 30,000 free bees to take home.

I believe that most, if not all, beekeepers are happy to go out and rescue swarming bees, if for no other reason than to educate the public a little bit about bees.

The local county extension service would have been able to recommend the names of several local beekeepers. Beekeeping may e just a hobby for most people, but for a few people it is a billion-dollar a year industry–these folks keep hundreds of beehives, and truck them all over the country to pollinate big agricultural crops like orchards and blueberries, following the seasons.

Darn! Double darn! What a waste. :frowning:

As to what the bees were doing, bees swarm whenever they outgrow their living quarters, especially in the spring. Like Jophiel said, they raise up a new queen and then half the hive splits off and follows her. During the time that they’re hanging in a tree as a swarm, they are actually relatively calm, because they are still deciding where to go. (They send out scouts.) So it’s fairly easy to collect them. It doesn’t even have to be a regular beehive. Beekeepers have been known to gather the swarm into a hat and carry it home and pop it into a hive.

In the olden days, finding a bee swarm was a great event, “finders keepers”. They’d take it home and put in into a “bee gum”, which was a section of black locust tree log. Or into a woven straw beehive called a “skep”.

But I suppose the school was worried about somebody being stung and suing them…Darn!

:frowning:

“Why, sometimes I’ve believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast!” - the White Queen

6

Ruffian, you’re lucky! I’ve never seen one in real life (though my father kept beehives when I was a kid.)

Here are some pictures, for those who have never seen one.

Photographs: Hiving a swarm

7

Maybe it’s just me, but I felt an awful pang for those scouts who go looking around for a good home and then come back to find their swarm has disappeared on them.

“Guys? Guys? Hey, I found this great place. Where’d you go? Guys?”

8

Hey, Ruffian, clear something up for us. Just out of curiosity, when you said an exterminator came and collected the bees, are you talking “collected bee carcasses” or are you talking “exterminator by trade but not on this mission”? I’m just curious because when bees moved into my school, they were collected alive rather than in a deader-than-doornail state. Also, it would make Notthemama feel better if you tell us they were collected alive…

9

Boris, I honestly don’t know whether they were killed or collected. They were removed during lunch hour, so I was unable to watch it happen. A student told me he scooped them into a large container (it looked like a large cooler). I am, however, printing this thread to take to school for the other curious teachers among us. And thanks guys–you’ve provided a great minilesson for my classroom!

As for the scouts that got left behind–“Guys? Hello?”–we were still getting a few this morning. The kids were very excited, squealing at the sight of any bee, and were quick to point out the lonely scouts. Poor guys!

As far as the school being afraid of getting sued, I wouldn’t say that so much as we were honestly fearful of having hundreds of pissed off bees on our playground, stinging students, some of whom are allergic. The locale of the mass of bees was most unfortunate–it was directly in front of the boy’s bathroom, and on the edge of the primary (grades 1-3) playground. Jelly balls are constantly in the air, and there was a high probability of it getting hit. I didn’t want my kids getting stung, and neither did anyone else…really, that was why the exterminator was called. Not because of lawsuit fears, but out of genuine caring for our kids. :slight_smile:

I only wish I’d had my camera with me!

Teaching: The ultimate birth control method.

Laura’s Stuff and Things

10

Well, news is they used boric acid…so I’m guessing the bees weren’t collected, they were exterminated.

Bummer.

But, now we know…in case there is ever a next time…

11

FYI, I forget who asked: The scouts that were “left behind” (shades of the LBMB! :rolleyes :slight_smile: would have eventually followed the smell of honey to another beehive somewhere fairly close by, whether the new one founded by their compatriots, or perhaps a different one (possibly even the old one that the new swarm split off from). Although it’s true that beehives generally will not welcome “alien” bees that don’t have the scent of the hive on them, I believe that if an “orphaned” scout worker bee hangs around outside the hive long enough, on the lip of the doorway, eventually she gets the scent of the hive on her, and the guard bees will let her in.

I’m glad to hear that at least this has been a learning experience for SOMEONE. :slight_smile:

“Why, sometimes I’ve believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast!” - the White Queen

12

Personal note: I once accidentally and not on purpose drove through a bee swarm. It happened at the city limits of Santa Fe as I was driving home, so I was going around 40-50 MPH. I know that they were bees because some got stuck under the windshield wipers. They sounded like rain on the windshield. Big golden splatters. Icky icky icky.

Damn silly place to swarm, I must say…

13

The site I had linked to above says the following