Honey bees will swarm in the spring and early summer which is perfectly natural as it is their way of creating another colony.
Normally swarming will occur mid morning on a warm still day, the existing queen and all the flying worker bees will emerge from the hive and fly around making a considerable noise they then gather together in a clump hanging from a convenient tree, bush or anything else that takes their fancy. They then send out scout bees who look for a suitable new home, this can take a day or two which gives the beekeeper the opportunity to capture the bees and introduce them to a spare hive.
If the bees are left alone they will eventually choose a new home and all move in, unfortunately this often is in a chimney, under the tiles in a roof, the cavity in a shed wall or a hollow tree. Once they have moved in it is virtually impossible to get them to leave without destroying the surrounding structure.
So if you have a swarm that you don’t want, don’t delay too long, contact your local beekeeping organisation that should be able to deal with it.
Collecting swarms does have its risks as the beekeeper does not know if the bees are carrying any diseases and parasites nor the bee’s temperament which is important for the bee keeper and his existing stock of bees.
We can collect swarms but obviously only fairly locally as the fuel costs and time taken need to be taken into account.
The procedure is to catch the queen and most of the flying bees in a straw skep which the bees will accept as their new home, come sundown the rest of the bees will enter the skep and the beekeeper can remove them safely, sounds straightforward but unfortunally the bees often settle in very daft locations which make it all a bit of a challenge.
Often we will collect a swarm with a novice beekeeper who will then settle them in their own hive which is one way of getting started.