Why Do Bees Swarm?

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Why do bees swarm?

Swarming is the process by which the colonies of the honey bees can reproduce. By this method of swarming, a group of honey bees will get separated from the original colony and inhabit in another place away from the parent colony. The swarming is the usual life cycle of the colony of the bees. The bee swarms are very interesting usually. The swarm will consist of 1500 to 30,000 bees which involve drones, workers and queen. Swarming acts as the instinct of the annual life cycle of the colony of the honey bee.

Swarming is not an important factor for the beekeeping while the beekeeper will make use of this process in spreading the colony stock. If a bee has to reproduce, it will be forced to give rise to a new queen and the queen will be only one in a colony at one time. Swarming takes place when the weather is congenial enough and the colony size is large for the new colony or swarm to get separated.

When bees are swarming they are actually creating a new colony from an already existing one and in generating a new hive. The swarming is part of a natural phenomenon which can disseminate the species due to some reasons. The reasons for the bees to swarm can be starvation, internal hive problems and overcrowding. The intense crowding is considered as a major reason for the honey bee swarm.

When the honey bee swarming occurs, nearly sixty percent of the bees will go away from the hive. This will leave the hive not able to have time to rebuild the bee number within the honey harvesting period. The honey that is produced will be in small quantity because swarming might have occurred before the season meant for nectar flow. Hence, swarming occurring prior to the nectar harvest will decrease the production of honey.

Author: Hari M

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