Why are my Native bees swarming and why do native stingless bees swarm?
A Native Bee swarm is often the first time people become aware of Native Bees as these swarms can be large and cause alarm. These swarms occur for various reasons and can last from days to weeks.
Reasons for Native Bee swarms can vary. Below are some reasons you may be seeing a Native Bee swarm in action:
Invading Native Bee Swarm
This is when a stronger colony of Native bees attempt to take over a weaker colony. Large amounts of bees can bee seen in the air. The native bees will lock together in battle and you will note hundreds of dead Native bees piled on the ground close to hive being attacked. The invading swarm of Native Bees have studied the colony they wish to invade before the takeover and they rarely fail. It is a numbers game and the invaded colony usually falls due to lack of numbers to defend. When taken over the colony and hive become a new stronger hive.
Mating Native Bee Swarm
These are Native bees coming from many outside colonies wanting to mate with a queen. These Native bees are known as Drone bees and can be found hovering and landing at the nest site which contains the virgin queen. At night the drone bees can be seen on tree branches in large clumps. A small amount of dead bees may be present.
Exploratory Native Bee Swarm
These are seen when Native bees are covering a large area searching and flying horizontally and vertically upon a surface. Often they are noted against a wall of a house. Bees can be seen landing and will often land on darker colours of the house or area they are exploring. If a suitable area is found the Native bees will then colonise that area. A Native Stingless bee exploratory swarm can go on for several weeks. If the Native bees are successful in finding a suitable location to nest the swarm will move to colonisation stage. During colonisation a large number of Native bee activity will continue to be present in setting up their new nest location.
Drifting Native Bee Swarm
This generally occurs in man made hives when the hive boxes are placed close together, especially when new hives are introduced. The returning worker bees may drift into wrong hives sending the hives into swarm . Drifting swarms will cause the Native bees to be on high alert as the hives believe they are being invaded.
Any questions on a Native Stingless bee swarm you may be witnessing you can call Brisbane Native Bees.
If you need help in Identification of native bees some useful information is available in our native stingless bee identification page.
