How to re-hive bees

Bee's leave their hive for a number of reasons:

• A new queen bee is born causing the old queen to leave the hive with a large portion of the colony
• Food shortages
• The hive is destroyed
• Better foraging elsewhere

The bees send out scouts who look for what would be an appropriate place to build a new hive. Once the scouts have found somewhere they will inform the rest of the colony including the queen and the entire colony will swarm and move to the new place. Occasionally you will find that the bees must leave their hive before they have found a new home. This is when the swarm will gather in a tree or as in the case of our video, on a patch of grass while the scout bees go about finding a new place for a hive.

In the video, you will see Peter capture the queen bee with a queen clip and use the natural inclination of the colony to follow her, to move them into a new hive. Even though the queen is held captive, this is a humane way in which to move a swarm as no toxins are used and no harm is done to any of the bees.

You shouldn't try this at home with a swarm that has made itself comfortable in your back yard. Although bees are generally placid when they are swarming, their main aim is to protect the queen, they may decide to protect her in an aggressive manner, whichwill leave you in an extremely vulnerable position.