By Malone Morchower

On Friday, March 24, I walked out of English class to see a swarm of bees surrounding one side of the Upper School Greenhouse, at the north end of the North Science Building. Students shrieked as they made the unfortunate mistake of walking outside into the bee storm. 

A queen bee surrounded by other bees. Photo credit: Levi Asay via Wikimedia Commons.

The reason these bees chose to swarm on North Mooreland Road is most likely that a new queen bee arrived, and there’s only room for one queen bee in a hive. Usually, hives split into two groups when the hive becomes overpopulated with two queen bees. The queen bee releases a chemical pheromone that worker and drone bees are attracted to. Beemission.com, a website committed to informing people about bees and selling bee-related products to raise money, explains that the queen bee’s pheromone causes “physiological, social and behavioral changes in the other bees” and that they are “used as a form of communication and are released in order to provoke a response.” In other words, when the queen bee says it’s time to go, it’s time to go. 

So these bees chose to relocate to Collegiate’s campus. They found an opening in the bricks and mortar of the Greenhouse and created their new home. 

The bee box and cone. Photo credit: Vlastik Svab.

In response to this, Collegiate called a beekeeper, Steve White with Twin Hickory Honey LLC. In an interview, Collegiate’s maintenance supervisor Carroll Campbell explained to me the process the beekeeper went about fixing this issue, which involved the installation of what is called the trap box. To set up the trap box, the beekeeper put a box next to the problematic area and a cone over the place the bees are going into the building. The cone is narrow at the end, so the bees can easily get out, but they can’t find their way back in as easily. After a while of not being able to reenter the original hive, they will look for somewhere else to live, which is the box. The beekeeper trades out the box each time it becomes too full and moves the bees to a more suitable place.

The bees went through five boxes, and the last one was removed, with most of the last bees, on April 27. The beekeeper took the bees to various places around the area. The first box of honey bees went to a horse farm in Goochland County, the second and third boxes went to a location in Chesterfield Country near the James River, and the last two boxes went to Hanover County. White estimated that he removed a total of 15,000-20,000 bees. 

After initially seeing the swarm of bees, some of the students panicked. Izzy Lee (‘23), exclaimed, “My nightmares had come true that day, and as soon as I saw them, I ran away.” And William Britt (‘23), said, “I don’t like bees, it was sketchy.” Even Head of the Upper School Patrick Loach said, “Initially, I was concerned after seeing a thousand bees flying around, especially as someone who is allergic.” Many students and faculty didn’t realize that these bees were not trying to sting them. Campbell explained that “when the bees are swarming, they’re focused on taking care of queen bee and finding a new home,” rather than stinging students. As long as people don’t bother the bees, the bees aren’t really a threat to people’s safety. After hearing this information and talking to Upper School science teacher Sandra Marr, Loach explained that “I was assured.” 

Campbell accurately predicted that the bees would take four or five weeks to fully leave, explaining back in April that “they’ll be gone when the queen bee leaves.” Hopefully, the bees will like their new homes as much as they liked Collegiate. 

Featured image photo credit: Charles J. Sharp via Wikimedia Commons.