Bee Swarms

Don’t panic. Maintain a safe distance and report the bee swarm’s location and any direction it may be heading. Please do not call an exterminator or attempt to destroy the bee swarm.

In Beaufort County (North Carolina),
call 252-946-0111 to report a bee swarm or problem.

A honey bee swarm is actually not a bad thing.
First, bees tend to be less aggressive when swarming, so they are less likely to attack you - unless provoked (e.g., do not throw sticks or stones). Take this with a grain of salt, as someone or something may have provoked them a minute before you arrived.
Second, this is a bee colony’s way of growing when they have outgrown their current hive - which is a good thing in a world where bee populations may be in decline.

What to do if you find a bee swarm: Report the location of the swarm so that the bees might be safely collected.

  • In Beaufort County (North Carolina), call 252-946-0111 to report a bee swarm or problem. Tell them where the hive is located, the time when you saw the swarm, and which direction it might be heading.

  • If you are not in Beaufort County NC, please contact your local county extension office.

Someone in the cooperative extension or county resources office should be able to connect you with a certified local beekeeper. A certified beekeeper will make reasonable efforts to collect the bee swarm in a manner which is safe for both the public and the bees. Your efforts to report any found bee swarm is greatly appreciated by local beekeepers.

  • Bees will swarm from their home for a few reasons. The main reason for bees to swarm is to grow their existing hive. Most swarms take place in the Spring (from March to May) when pollen and nectar is plentiful, and the bee hive population is doing very well. The current queen will lay several eggs which will become young queens when the multitude of plants are blooming. During this same time, some bees are out scouting for potential new locations for a hive, and they are reporting back to the hive. When the young queens have hatched and are beginning to dominate the hive, the older queen will take about half the hive (who have been gorging on available honey in the hive) and take wing to find a new home that a scout has located where they will rebuild a new hive.

    Bees may also swarm if their current hive has become damaged (e.g., destroyed by a bear) or uninhabitable (e.g., overwhelmed by pests).

  • Normally, the bees in a swarm have gorged themselves on honey before starting their swarm. They are fat, slow, contented, and want to protect this food while trying to safely get their queen into a new hive. This causes bees in a swarm to typically be less aggressive than that might normally be. Worker honey bees do not want to attack and sting anything generally unless they are called upon to defend their queen, hive, or themselves. Swarm bees also need to protect the valuable honey they are carrying for this swarm.

    But they can definitely become aggressive if the swarm is disturbed or attacked. If you see a bee swarm, this absolute best advice is to maintain a safe distance and report the swarm to a certified beekeeper or agricultural extension agent.

    Even if you are not attacking the swarm, you do not know if they swarm has recently been threatened and is in a heightened defensive posture (i.e., more likely to attack and sting). Please be aware that people have been stung by bees that have been swarming, even though this is not the bees normal behavior.

    If you see a bee swarm, then you should maintain a safe distance from the swarm (e.g., 30-feet or more), do not approach the swarm, and contact your local agricultural cooperative extension to report the location of the swarm and the direction it might be heading.