Individual bees constantly reproduce and the colony must reproduce, too. Bee swarming is the reproduction of a honey bee colony.

A colony of bees can be described as a superorganism like a multicellular organism, the same as cells are constantly replaced and added to, bees will also be replaced and new ones added until the organism, the swarm, needs to split to create a new organism.

How do I know my colony is going to swarm?

There are a few steps the colony and the queen take in preparation of swarming:

1. The production of drones – Bee drones take longer than other classes of bees to mature and they are needed for mating with new queens.
2. Queen cell cups – When cell cups start to form the reigning queen slows down and stops laying to allow her abdomen to reduce in size and prepare her for flight.
3. Swarm lethargy – Normal activity slows down and a half to three-quarters of the bees start to engorge themselves on with honey.
4. Workers cluster – The less active workers beard on the outside of the hive entrance while scouts are the only bees going back and forth with information on new locations.

When the bees swarm

When the first queen cells have been capped the colony starts to prepare to leave. The excitement in the hive starts to build to a frenzy and then the swarm bellows out the front of the hive. The bees tug and pull on the old queen to the entrance and encourage her to take flight.

Sometimes the swarm will leave the hive and cluster nearby without the queen, after which they will return to the hive after a few minutes. This is referred to as false swarming and can be repeated until the queen takes flight with the workers.

When the old queen leaves the hive most of the young workers accompany her in what is called the prime swarm. The reason she attracts the young workers is to ensure she has a strong colony to increase the chance of survival. They are also in the stage of wax production which means they will be able to build combs quickly at the new nesting site, providing the queen the quickest opportunity to start laying eggs.

Often the prime swarm will gather together on a tree before leaving for the new nesting site. The frantic activity at the old hive returns back to normal very soon after the prime swarm leaves.

What is left in my bee hive after a swarm

In the original colony the hive will wait for the mature queen cells to produce new queen bees. The first virgin queen to emerge will usually destroy all competitor queens by chewing through the other queen cells and sting the young queens to death. The worker bees will do their best to assist the new queens to emerge when conditions are at their best for mating. They will add to capping or dance on the cells to delay the emergence of the queens or chew at the capping to assist the emergence of the queens.