{"id":46786,"date":"2021-05-14T16:57:00","date_gmt":"2021-05-14T22:57:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/honey-bees-swarm-in-cortez-neighborhood\/"},"modified":"2026-03-31T03:34:24","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T09:34:24","slug":"honey-bees-swarm-in-cortez-neighborhood","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/honey-bees-swarm-in-cortez-neighborhood\/","title":{"rendered":"Honey bees swarm in Cortez neighborhood"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"A
A honey bee swarm landed on a tree in north Cortez on Montelores Street on April 26. Swarming is a natural process that occurs when bees and their queen leave a crowded hive. They stage somewhere, often a tree, while scouting bees fly around looking for a new home. The colony then flies to the new location to build a new hive. (Courtesy of Jordan Sella)<\/span>Courtesy of Jordan Sella<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>\n

A Cortez neighborhood witnessed a rite of spring recently when a swarm of honey bees arrived, explored and landed in a tree.<\/p>\n

In late April, Jordan Sella was in his yard on Montelores Avenue in north Cortez when he and his dogs heard loud buzzing. He looked up to see a swarm with thousands of bees flying around.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was an amazing sight,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

He gathered his dogs and put them inside, then watched and followed the swarm to the neighbor\u2019s yard, where it landed on tree branches.<\/p>\n

The swarm stayed in the tree for about five hours, then suddenly left.<\/p>\n

Local beekeepers were contacted and arrived to monitor the swarm. They said it contained several thousand bees. Swarms can reach as many as 10,000 bees or more.<\/p>\n

Honey bee swarms are a natural event that occur every spring when the colony leaves a crowded hive to find a new home, said Nancy Logan, president of the 4 Corners Beekeeping Association<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cAfter over wintering, the queen gives a signal it is time to leave and the colony departs the hive,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Before they leave, the bees usually eat a lot of honey to have the energy for the journey and building the new hive. During the swarm, the bees are docile, focused on finding a new home, Logan said.<\/p>\n

When a colony swarms it typically settles in a tree, then scout bees are sent to find a suitable location for a new home, she said. They return, inform the colony, and the swarm flies to the new location to build a new hive for their queen, which can live up to two years.<\/p>\n

\"A
A honey bee swarm landed on a tree in north Cortez in late April. Swarming is a natural occurance every spring as colonies leave a crowded hive and build a new one somewhere else. (Courtesy of Jordan Sella)<\/span>Courtesy of Jordan Sella<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Meanwhile, in the original hive, a new queen is created, matures, and the hive repopulates until it is time to swarm. Then the process is repeated.<\/p>\n

\u201cSwarming is a way honey bees create new colonies in the world,\u201d Logan said. \u201cIt also fosters healthy genetics with new queens each year.\u201d<\/p>\n

Honey bee swarms should be left alone, and they typically leave by the next day.<\/p>\n

Natural swarms and their queens are sometimes captured by beekeepers, who create box hives for them and harvest the honey and honeycomb.<\/p>\n

The 4 Corners Beekeepers Association has a swarm hotline for this purpose at (970) 769-2661. It will safely remove the swarm for free.<\/p>\n

Sella said he has seen lots of wildlife, and witnessing a bee swarm was a cool highlight, and a first.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt caught the attention of the neighborhood,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

jmimiaga@the-journal.com<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Swarming is a natural process for bees to relocate hives<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":46787,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[21,28,60,1625,29,603],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-46786","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-cortez","tag-headlines","tag-montezuma-county","tag-nature","tag-newsletter","tag-wildlife"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46786","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=46786"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46786\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":87027,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46786\/revisions\/87027"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/46787"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=46786"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=46786"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=46786"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=46786"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}