We had a recent situation where we found a small swarm of bees clinging to an apple tree in our Rye apiary.  This was a big surprise since none of our hives had any signs of throwing a swarm  and the cluster was very small.  Furthermore, the coloring of the bees also was a bit too dark since the majority of our bees, in this apiary,  are the orange colored Italian honey bees.   The cluster was small and hardly noticeable but it held together on a branch in a tight arrangement.  Upon closer review, the bees looked to be a tad lethargic and hungry.  Some forager bees were coming back with pollen to feed the hive but there did not appear to be any work to look for a new hive location.  Our guess is the swarm may have tried to enter an existing hive that one of the scouts had found and was beaten back and needed to retreat to a tree branch.    

We need to 

A friend of us has a property in the center of Portsmouth, NH which has an old barn that is over a hundred years old.  This part of Portsmouth used to be farming land and the city has built up around it.   Old barns are a favorite nesting site for honey bees, especially old ones that still have comb.   The reason being is that scout bees looking for a new home will report back to the swarm cluster that there is comb in the new nesting location and it had been a home to prior colonies. When the hive decides to make it a home they bees fly on over and start to file into the location.  This is when the air will fill with bees as the thousands upon thousands of bees make their way to the new home.  The video below shows the activity of bee moving into their new Portsmouth, New Hampshire home in the Summer of 2017.

If you have a honey bee swarm or honey bees living in your home - call us at 603-682-7898 for a swarm recovery.