Welcome to the
Iowa Honey Producers Association
Helping fellow Beekeepers since 1912
​Swarms
Swarming is the process by which a new honey bee colony is formed when the queen bee leaves the colony with a large group of worker bees. Swarming is the natural means of reproduction of honey bee colonies. In the process of swarming the original single colony reproduces to two and sometimes more colonies. The reproduction swarms often settle within eyesight from the original hive for 1 or 2 days and will then depart for a new hive site after getting information from scout bees. The bees want to find an enclosed space to move into, so that tree limb in your yard is not a place they will want to stay. Swarms are not aggressive because they have no honey or young brood to defend. Before they left the hive with the queen, they all ate a lot of honey to get them through the next few days it might take to find a new place to take up residence. I will admit, a swarm of flying bees is pretty scary looking but you could stand in the middle of one and not get stung unless you started swatting at them or trying to catch them in your hand. Sure they will bump into you but they are very purposeful insects and are concentrating on the task at hand.
So, if you see a swarm of honey bees, please can call your local beekeeper or District Director, he/she will get a hold of a local beekeeper in your area (or come out to your place themselves) and remove the bees safely to take them away or just let them find their own way in the world.
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To find your District Director please click on the Contacts tab and go to the sub-tab named Officers & Directors..... Thank You!
These are not Honey Bees
(images below)
Many people confuse wasps and just about any striped insect with honey bees. If what you see is a small number of bees (5 to 50) hanging off the eve of your home building a paper type nest; that is NOT a honey bee. It is likely a paper wasp. If you see a huge foot ball shaped papery-nest on a tree branch; that is likely a type of hornet. Honeybee swarms will be 10's of thousands of bees and will start forming curtains of waxy comb that look nothing like the pictures below. Honey bees are covered in fuzzy hairs while wasps and hornets are completely smooth. I often times hear people say they have a honey bee colony living in their yard or garden in the dirt; honey bees do NOT live under ground. Different types of wasps (especially yellow jackets) to make a home in rotting wood and tree roots in the ground. Kids cartoons and coloring books haven't done the general public very big favors over the years by depicting anything black and yellow striped as honey bees. The wallpaper background of this website shows honey bees. They aren't a pretty bright yellow, and are a dark brown. Yellow jackets will be a bright clean yellow and black.
Wasp Nest
Hornet nest
Bee vs Wasp
