Akron Ohio News - Bees swarming earlier this year

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Bees swarming earlier this year

5/3/2012 - West Side Leader

By Kathleen Folkerth

Richfield beekeeper Alan Travers is shown with the hives he keeps in his backyard.

Photo: Kathleen Folkerth

Richfield resident Alan Travers is shown at a house on Bath Road that he worked on last year to remove a honeybee colony.

Bees colonized in this pillar of a home near The University of Akron campus that Alan Travers removed.

Photos courtesy of Alan Travers

Another swarm is shown hanging out in a tree.

Staff photo

GREATER AKRON — This year’s early start to spring didn’t just make the crocuses sprout sooner than usual. Local beekeepers said bees have begun to swarm earlier this season as well.

Alan Travers, of Richfield, who has been a hobby beekeeper for about six years, said swarms are typical bee behavior in the spring.

“Swarming is a colony’s way of reproducing itself,” said Travers, who is a Richfield Village firefighter. “In the spring there’s a massive buildup of bees. The queen takes half the colony to find a new one. It’s quite impressive.”

A swarm can vary in size, but Travers said they can get as large as a beach ball. He added that swarming bees are docile because they don’t have a home to defend.

“It’s a like a cloud of bees,” he said.

Any time the temperature gets above 60 degrees, bees can swarm, he said.

“In Ohio, it’s usually the third or fourth week of May,” Travers said. “But this year I know people whose hives have already swarmed. It’s way early.”

Swarming bees should be left undisturbed, he said. The swarm usually stays in place up to a day and a half.

“The scouts are out looking [for a new place to live],” he said. “Chances are they will find one nearby.”

That’s when property owners should be observant to make sure bees aren’t setting up their home in a house or garage, Travers said.

When bees swarm, Travers said most beekeepers are willing to come out to a home and move the swarm into a hive. The process is usually simple, but it’s not something Travers recommends a novice attempt.

It’s when the bees set up a colony and begin to take over a structure that it gets more complicated, he said.

Travers said he’s one of just a few local beekeepers who will take on jobs to remove honeybees from structures. It’s not the kind of work that someone should try to do on his or her own, he said.

“It’s a lot of work, extremely messy and time consuming,” he said.

There are three ways to deal with a honeybee colony that has invaded a structure, he said: a cutout, which is the most effective, requires the cutting of a section of a wall, ceiling or roof and removing the bees and honeycomb; a trap out, which uses a funnel like trap to allow bees to escape but not return to the hive; and insecticides, in which an exterminator sprays chemicals to destroy the bees.

Travers said a cutout is the most effective way to remove bees, but some owners don’t like the destructiveness of the process. A trap out, though, is not guaranteed to remove all bees from a colony, he said.

The problem with pesticides, he said, is that it can kill the bees but it leaves their comb and honey behind, which other pests and rodents can be attracted to.

“Also, if a colony dies, there’s a huge stench,” he said. “Decaying bees reek more than garbage.”

If a property owner finds that bees are in a structure, most call a pest control company, but Travers said most don’t deal with honeybees.

Alan Travers found a swarm on one of his children’s toys in his yard and was able to get it moved into a hive.

Photo courtesy of Alan Travers

Other types of bees can sting, like honeybees, but Travers said they don’t cause the structural damage that honeybees can cause. Bumblebees don’t move into buildings but will often set up homes underground. Carpenter bees can drill holes into wood and cause destruction, but they can be eliminated with pesticide, and the hole should be patched over so that another group won’t make their home there, Travers said.

At his home, Travers has three hives, and there are two more he keeps on others’ property. He got interested in beekeeping through his interest in gardening and is a member of the Summit County Beekeepers Association, which meets at the Quirk Cultural Center in Cuyahoga Falls and provides education and information.

As a result of his hobby, Travers enjoys honey from his hives and sells it from his home.

More information, including a list of local beekeepers who will take swarms, is available at www.summitbeekeepers.com.

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