Bee Swarm - Te Mata Peak park

Hi,

When walking the dog this afternoon I found a basket ball sized bee swarm sheltering in a hole in the rock near a minor walking track in the Te Mata Peak park near Havelock North, in Hawkes Bay.

I have attached a picture of the swarm (they are towards the right hand end of the rocky hollow). They seemed fairly calm, with not many bees flying, like they may have chosen this site as the place to lay down wax for a new hive? They are pretty exposed where they are and I would not expect them to survive a winter there.

Cheers

Attached files

Tis the season for bee swarms at present. Our beeman has just taken all the hives off our place so he can split and start new colonies, then he will bring them back. bee keepers are often keen to pick up swarms if they are in reasonable places to rescue them.

When bees swarm they are very quiet because they gorge themselves on honey so probably in sugar overload.
This is why bee keepers like to grab a swarm when it has arrived somewhere newly as they are still easy to manage
Where they land initially is not necessarily where they will stay but send scouts out for a new location which they may find more suitable.
Most beekeepers are really happy to collect swarms as its a way of starting off a new colony

Some bee keepers aren't so keen to collect swarms anymore because of the varoa mite. For the life of me I can't see any bees in the photo, guess you did not want to get too close, though it probably was quite safe.

Varroa is manageable and not going away in the near future. I wouldn't let that stop me collecting a swarm