Honey bees swarm from April to July. Swarming is the natural way a honey bee colony divides to produce two colonies. About half the number of bees in the colony leave with the queen honey bee and look for a new home. The remaining bees stay in the old hive with a brand new queen. The process secures the survival of the colony which gets a young queen in replacing her aging mother. Beekeepers try to prevent their colonies swarming for a variety of reasons. For one thing, swarming depletes their stock of bees and reduces the honey crop.

Starting to keep bees is an adventure, but, however long you have been a beekeeper, the beginning of each season is a new start, because every season and every colony of bees is different. If beekeeping is something you are trying for the first time there are good ways, and bad ways, of going about it. It is essential to grasp the notion that honey bees are totally different to any other type of livestock: They are always wild, they can fly where they want to and cannot be confined, they certainly cannot be stroked and they will never recognise you.