The opportunity to actually see a swarm of honey bees doesn’t come often, but to also see a swarm being captured is even more exciting.
Both experiences occurred recently at Southern Missouri Investments in Mountain Grove when a swarm of honey bees landed in one of their trees.
The bee swarm before it was contained.
The whirring mass of bees was noticed by the firm’s owner, Jim Bukowsky, before it landed on the lower portion of the trunk of a tree outside the office. Swarms generally tend to land higher up and are therefore usually out of general sight.
Swarming occurs when a queen bee leaves a colony in search of a new nest, taking thousands of drones and worker bees with her. Queens are not strong flyers and inevitably need to rest at some point during the flight. When she does, she is then surrounded by the other bees for protection, thus forming the clump.
Scout bees are sent on to continue looking for a suitable place for the colony to live.
Local bee experts Barry and Debra Baker, Colette Long and Tina Hernandez arrived and were able to successfully capture the swarm, creating a new hive for them along with an exceptional, educational experience for all who joined to witness this rare and interesting event.
“I would like to thank the bee keepers for arriving so quickly and handling the bees in such a calm and gentle manner,” Bukowsky said. “Without the work of these amazing little ‘winged warriors’ and the role that bees fulfill, pollination would be reduced, resulting in a greatly diminished food supply in a very short period of time.”