R&B Honey Co

We Caught a Honey Bee Swarm — Here’s What Happened

There’s something both humbling and exhilarating about getting a call that sends you straight to your bee yard on a Sunday morning. That’s exactly how last weekend started for us here at R&B Honey Co.

We headed out to one of our bee yards in Cleveland, GA, and what we found stopped us in our tracks. Clinging to the branch of a nearby tree was a massive swarm of honeybees — thousands of them, clustered together in that iconic, football-shaped mass that every beekeeper both loves and respects. If you’ve never seen a swarm in person, it’s one of nature’s most spectacular sights. Equal parts beautiful and wild.

So What Exactly is a Swarm?

A lot of people panic when they see a swarm, and we completely understand why. A dark, buzzing cloud of bees is not exactly a welcome surprise. But here’s the truth — a swarm is actually one of the most docile states a honeybee colony can be in. When bees swarm, they’ve left their original hive with a queen to find a new home. Because they have no honey or young bees to protect, they’re remarkably calm. They’re not looking for a fight — they’re looking for real estate.

Swarming is completely natural. It’s actually the honeybee’s way of reproducing at the colony level. When a hive gets too crowded, roughly half the colony takes off with the old queen to start fresh somewhere new. It’s a sign of a healthy, thriving hive — even if it looks alarming from the outside.

The Catch

We got to work carefully and methodically, and successfully caught the swarm. Those bees have now been relocated to one of our other bee yards where they’ll build out a new hive, contribute to our local ecosystem, and — if we’re lucky — eventually produce some of that mountain honey you know and love. Every swarm we catch is a gift. New bees, new colony, new potential.

See a Swarm? Don’t Call an Exterminator — Call a Beekeeper

This is important. If you ever spot a swarm on your property — on a tree branch, a fence post, under an eave — please don’t panic and please don’t reach for a can of bug spray. Honeybees are vital pollinators and their populations need all the help they can get.

Instead, scan the QR code below. It will take you directly to a swarm reporting website where you can submit your location, and a local beekeeper will come remove the swarm completely free of charge. You get rid of the bees, the beekeeper gets a new colony, and the bees get a safe home. Everybody wins.