The Swarm

Almost everyone has a ‘honeybee swarm story’. What actually did happen when those thousands of bees swarmed onto your tree, bush or house? What brought them? They were probably not killer bees trying to drive you out of your house, but they were honeybees looking for a home. A swarm is about half the bees from an existing hive with their old queen. When a hive becomes overly crowded (usually in the spring) the half the bees ‘swarm’ and look for a new home. Often they temporarily land on a tree or bush or anything else convenient, until they can locate a permanent home.

They are normally about the size of a football, and in most cases they are very docile. Just before they leave the hive, they engorge themselves on honey so they will not have to gather any on the trip. They are so stuffed, that they are to full to attack anyone.

Fun Bee Facts

• Honeybees pollinate 80% of all fruit, vegetable and seed crops in the USA.

• Bees must travel over 55,000 miles and visit 2 million flowers to produce 1 lb. of honey!
  

• A honeybee can fly 15 mph.

• It would take only 1 ounce of honey to fuel one bee’s flight around the world.

• Cured honey will NEVER spoil.

• One honeybee will only produce 1/12 of a teaspoon of honey in its entire life.

• Honeybees are the only insect that produces food for humans.

• It takes 2 million flowers to make 1 pound of honey!

• The queen bee can lay up to 2,000 eggs in1 day - that's 132,000 annually!

• One gallon of honey is enough to fuel a bee's flight to the moon and back!

• One ounce of honey could fuel a bee's flight around the world.