I just saw something I've never seen before. I was sitting out front watching my boy play, and a huge swarm of bees came out of nowhere. I mean thousands. Flying 4-8 feet off the ground, and covering my whole driveway and then some. Scared the piss out of me. I grabbed the boy and ran inside. Came back out about 5 mins later and they were gone. Anybody seen this before?

Yep, several times. They'll do it this time of year. They're moving about, looking for a new summer site for the hive. The whole colony is on the move. They'll roost overnight in a tree and then move on in the morning.

I have. Yours kept moving. Ours set up shop in one of our crab apple trees.

Bee keeper wanted a buttload of money to move it. My Dad told me to shutup and give it time. They'd move on.

Glad I listen'd to my Dad. That particular tree is no longer here and the bee's never returned.

I'll admit. All those bee's give me the heebie jeebies

I have seen it multiple times. I had one swarm that would move across in one season then move back across the HQ on a ranch over a couple of year period. Had another swarm that would move in and stay in the attic and wall of the camphouse. They did this several times over about a 5 yr period till I finally was able to get them stopped.

I hit a swarm on I-20 near Canton. It was a huge mess. I had to stop and clean my windshield. Do they have bee crossing signs?

Yea, I'm glad they moved on.

I have been told that when they are swarming and moving they are not much of a threat. I know we had some BBQ on a pit one day and a swarm moved in around us. We grabbed our beer and I slammed the lid shut on the pit. I guess the noise mad them move to a mesquite tree and they made a huge ball on a limb. We called a neighbor and he came over and got the whole swarm. Was really neat to watch him collect the swarm off that limb.

I seen it acouple times. Only been worried about it once. Me and my dad were fishing out on the trinity bay and had a swarm come to us. They started landing on everything in the boat including us. We were drifting across a shell reef and were in about a foot and a half of water so we really couldn't jump on plane and get out of there. Had to putt it off the shell. Neither one of us got stung. I was pizzed though. I had just stuck two trout that were 22-23".

The only time I ever got spooked by them was a few years ago. I was working in the cockpit of my old boat when I heard something growing louder. I stood up and looked just in time to see a black cloud coming my way and at eye level. I hit the deck and as they went over it sounded like a hundreds of thousands of .22 rounds flying past. Luckily they lit in a neighbor's yard for the night.

You really do get an uneasy feeling when them suckers fly by. Still a pretty neat thing to witness though

Dayum. We have a Bee tree on our place. Might not want to get the Dozer too close.

Provided the necessary resources are there, all mature bee hives will swarm. The old queen and half the bees will leave and find a new home. The new queen will remain in the hive with the other half of the bees. Basically, a bee swarm is just a bunch of homeless bees.

I was putting siding on a 3 story house once we were on pump jacks and a swarm of bees came over the house past us and decided to rest in a tree right next to the house. It was crazy there was nowhere for us to go.

I've had a hive in my barn in the panhandle since at least 2009 when I bought the place. Never had the right opportunity to clean the bees out and collect the honey. No beekeepers want to come get them.

I was putting sheets of tin on a roof and a swarm came to the roof. I crawled under a sheet of tin. I could hear them pinging and hitting the shiney roof. Maybe they thought it was water. Not sure. They moved on,, no harm done.

Actually, you could probably have charged the bee keeper to come and get them because he would be gaining a hive and thus more money in his pocket.
I helped a friend catch a couple of swarms when I was in high school. It was a little creepy but really neat!

Iv seen it while fishing one time...was just hangin out and then sounded like a bomber was flying over my head.... freakin insane

Interesting info from extension service:


Texas crop, weather for May 7, 2013
Posted: 07 May 2013 09:36 AM PDT

A migrating honeybee swarm rests in a tree. A swarm may stay in the same location for a few hours to several weeks, according to Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Service entomologists. (Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Service photo by Wizzie Brown)

Bee swarms, some low insect populations may be drought related
Writer: Robert Burns, 903-834-6191, rd-burns@tamu.edu

COLLEGE STATION – Drought and up-and-down temperatures are affecting insect behavior – everything from honeybee behavior to delayed emergence of pests, according to a Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Service entomologist.

“Prolonged drought and these cold snaps we’re seeing do have impacts on the food web, and that impacts bees swarming and delayed emergence of some pests such as pecan nut casebearer,” said Dr. Charles Allen, AgriLife Extension entomologist and integrated pest management coordinator, San Angelo.

Honeybee swarming is not uncommon, Allen said. Bees swarm — migrate en masse — when there’s not enough plant growth and nectar supply in an area to support a colony. Part of the hive and new queen leaves to start a new colony elsewhere, where there is hopefully a larger food supply.

However, Allen said he has received reports from other AgriLife Extension entomologists around the state that indicates swarming is more prevalent this spring. The exact cause is unknown, but it’s more likely drought-related than due to the up-and-down swings in temperature.

“This week especially, calls have been coming in to AgriLife Extension offices in the Dallas area for help coping with the sudden bee invasion,” wrote Dr. Mike Merchant, AgriLife Extension urban entomologist, Dallas, on his blog, “Insects in the City.”

“According to Shelly Spearman of the AgriLife Extension office in Rockwall County, her office is getting one to two calls a day about bees,” he said.

Merchant said spring is prime time for bee swarming, so the increase could be one of perception.

I've had three hives cleaned out by bee keepers in the last two weeks from water meter boxes. They are hurting for Bees.

Had a swarm land on my house once, the wife was freaking out. They were there for almost a week. I called to have them removed, but everyone wanted to charge me for the bees so.....after a few beers one night I decided that I would remove them myself. I suited up in coveralls, gloves, taped my sleeves & my pants, put pantyhose on my head with a ski mask over it, grabbed a cardboard box and a ladder and....well, it didn't work out too well for me. I was elbo deep in bees when the entire bottom half of the hive broke off & hit the ground. Needless to say they were pizzed & all hell broke loose. I jumped to the ground and took off running to the door. I made it back in the house but not before being stung on the nose. After that I let them settle back down & then I came back out with a can of poison in each hand and killed them. That was fun. Also was working in a shipyard once and had a HUGE swarm land on a porta-can I was walking up to. They covered the whole top half of it. They moved on after a couple hours though. Was pretty neat but I really had to pee!

But many keepers are hesitant to bring bees of unknown condition into their healthy hives. Many have experienced large hits to their hives by doing that. But I'm not going to pay for the service either.

A keeper once told me to wait for a very cold day and then hose the hive down with water. The bees will fall off and I can cut the comb out without much of a fuss.

My dad was one of those bee keepers and had me partisipate for quite a number of years. Swarms occur when the population exceeds the capacity of their existing home. The worker bees know when this happens and create a new queen by fertilizing an egg with royal jelly a secret bee formula. The queen is the only female in the hive and 2 queens cannot exist in the same colony. Some how the bees realize that a certain portion of the hive must leave with the new queen and they depart in search of a new home. The swarm will leave their old home and set out to find a suitable alternative if you see them hanging in a tree or on the side of a home that is a tempory staging area as the scouts look for a proper home. such as a hollow tree or an opening in the side of a building or a commercial be hive. They are very docile at this time as they have filled themselves up with honey for the home search and know if they sting something they will die and not be able to support the search. I have witnessed my dad seeing the queen in the swarm catching her and putting her in front of our empty bee hive. In a matter of minutes all the other bees comunicate and follow the queen into the empty hive. Killing the bees in general is a bad idea as we have a severe shortage of them right now and if we were to lose them it would be the end of most fruit wnd vegitable production as they are the main polinator on earth

What he said.

I didn't want to kill them.

X2. My dad was a beekeeper for many years. This has been our experience also. Once the Africanized bees came into our area my mother made him stop Beekeeping.