bees - queens & swarms
Queen Bees
Most people know that bee colonies have a single queen 'in charge'. But I'm sure not as many people are as aware of how full bee colonies reproduce and create new colonies. In the photo we have a honeycomb frame with 6 queen cells, waiting for the new queens to emerge.
When the bees in the colony decide a queen needs replacing, they create new queen cells ready to replace the old queen.
Managed (False) Swarms
When a queen is active in the colony she makes a tooting noise. The new queens in their cells make a quacking noise. When the tooting stops, it's an indication the old queen has left the colony. Taking an entourage of worker bees and honey with her, to form a new colony elsewhere. When the tooting stops, the colony will let a new queen out of her cell to take over. The new queen will stop quacking and start tooting!
As beekeepers, we can check when this is going to happen by checking the colonies weekly. We can then 'false swarm' the colony by taking the existing queen away and putting her in a new hive with an entourage. This will allow the colony to release a new queen from a cell.
The photo (right) is of a colony in the process of being 'false swarmed' and the old queen being moved to a new hive.
Swarms
As a beekeeper, if you miss the signs on your inspections, you end up with a real swarm. The queen and her entourage naturally leave the colony/hive to make way for the new queen.
The bees will accumulate on a nearby tree around the queen and send out scouts to find a new place to live. As a beekeeper, you have a window of time to catch the swarm and rehouse it before it leaves to find it's own place to live! When you first see a swarm, it can look pretty terrifying, but in reality once they've swarmed the bees are fairly calm.
It's not as entirely simple as all that, but it's an overview, see the links for a more in depth articles!