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How’s your relationship with honey bees? You may be aware of their role as pollinators in agriculture. You also may use products made from beeswax and honey, or enjoy watching the busy, social little workers in the garden. But what do you do when a writhing, buzzing clump of thousands of the insects suddenly turns up in your yard?
First of all, don’t panic. Swarming honey bees are not usually dangerous – they’re simply looking for a new home – and there are plenty of beekeepers who’d be more than happy to adopt them. One Peninsula beekeeper has set up a new platform to expedite that process.
“Swarms happen when bees want to reproduce and they become overcrowded in the colony or hive they’re in,” Mountain View resident, recent college graduate and avid apiarist Mateo Kaiser said. When they split off into new colonies, they temporarily swarm while scouts seek out a new cavity to settle down in.
Kaiser has created a new, free service – Swarmed – to quickly and easily connect beekeepers to community members who’ve spotted a swarm they’re concerned about. After answering a few questions about the location and conditions, their report is sent to a network of local beekeepers, one of whom can “claim” the swarm, get the contact info and come pick it up, often within a half hour or so.
“Bee swarms happen all the time but the people are usually unsure about what to do. This can seem like a scary situation,” Kaiser said. He recalled “refreshing Nextdoor and Facebook pages, waiting for someone to post desperately about 10,000 bees in the backyard and not knowing what to do,” he said. “The posts come up over and over again.”
People can search online for local beekeepers but that process can be frustrating, as contact info may be out of date, beekeepers may not be available, and the person may end up having to repeat the same information over and over as they work their way down the list, he said. The goal of Swarmed is to streamline the whole process, as the request is sent to multiple beekeepers at once.
From beekeeper to swarm rescuer
Swarmed just launched in mid-March, and Kaiser said the site has averaged around five to seven reported swarms a day, many of which have been on the Peninsula, with about 1,000 beekeepers nationwide signed up so far.
Western honey bees (Apis mellifera) were first imported to North America by European colonists in the 17th century. According to the United States Department of Agriculture, honey bees now pollinate billions of dollars worth of crops in the U.S. each year. California law requires beekeepers to register their hives annually, and cities have their own local ordinances on beekeeping.
Local Beekeeping Regulations
Local regulations on beekeeping and other beekeeping resources are listed by the Santa Clara Valley Beekeepers Guild and the Beekeepers’ Guild of San Mateo County.
Kaiser is managing four colonies in his own yard at the moment. “I think of myself as more of a herdsman and less of a farmer,” he said.
He became interested in beekeeping a few years ago and was involved with establishing a campus pollinator garden with bee hives while he was a student at Lewis & Clark College in Oregon, from which he graduated in 2023. During the pandemic, he devoted much of his time to learning all he could about beekeeping. He also just finished up a stint working for a “beekeeping startup” in Europe, which develops products aimed at helping beekeepers better care for their hives. He is currently going through UC Davis’ California Master Beekeeper Program.
How ‘Swarmed’ works
Swarmed is free to use for both swarm reporters and beekeepers. Sales from bee-themed shirts and tote bags, and a logbook he designed for beekeepers, cover the cost of running the Swarmed website so far, Kaiser said. And while beekeeping associations can integrate his reporting form onto their own sites for free, he said. Kaiser also is offering a branded, custom version for an annual fee that sends swarms reported through that form only to that association’s members.
Beekeepers using Swarmed are expected “to only claim a swarm that they know they can get, within their skill level. So far that’s worked very well,” Kaiser said. If it doesn’t work out, “there’s always the option to get a new beekeeper. Either the beekeeper can unclaim the swarm or the person who reported the swarm can get a new beekeeper assigned.”
Typically, beekeepers will pick up the swarm for free, although more difficult cases will likely incur a fee (beekeepers and swarm reporters agree to the terms when connecting).
How beekeepers ‘rehome’ a swarm
To catch a swarm, Kaiser brings a box and brush (or occasionally a net on an extension pole if the swarm is up high). Sometimes, he can simply clip a tree branch the swarm is on and put it in the box, which beekeepers may treat with lemongrass oil, pheromones or honeycomb, to make it especially attractive.
“Beekeepers are good at creating a sort of environment bees want to move into,” he said. If need be, he gently sweeps the bees into the container.
“The bees are always extremely calm,” he said, noting that some beekeepers handle swarms with their bare hands. The best scenario is to attract the queen bee into the container early on.
“All the bees will follow her,” he said, describing the awe-inspiring sight of “thousands of insects all moving in coordination, walking together into the box.” Neighbors passing by, he said, are often fascinated to watch the process.
Creating a habitat for bees
While honey bees are not native, many wild, native bees do call the Bay Area home.
“On the topic of ‘saving the bees’ and the impact of honey bees on native population, I subscribe to the perspective of the Xerces Society for Invertebrate Conservation,” Kaiser wrote in an email to this news organization. “Native bees are beautiful and essential pollinators, and the best way to support them alongside local honey bees is to provide plenty of habitat and food sources.”
Kaiser said his yard also hosts a bumble bee hive, and he’s installed a gumball machine that dispenses free wildflower seed bombs to passersby.
“Planting pollinator-friendly gardens, rejecting the use of pesticides, and creating nesting space for native pollinators is something that everyone should be doing to support local bees,” he said.
More information on Swarmed is available at beeswarmed.org/. The Los Altos Library will host a talk by UC Master Gardener Laura Westley on local pollinators and how to support and attract them at 7 p.m. on Wednesday, May 15.