Heather Papps posted:

notes on swarm bee-haviour
if you see a swarm those are almost certainly free bees. normally keepers will nucleate hives to produce new ones intentionally. when i was learning beekeeping in saskatchewan there was a yard that was forgotten and when we discovered it was full of hives we found this:

swarms are a sign of excellent hive health and if you see one the bees in your locale are doing well, which is very nice. also, i guess if you want you could do the bee beard thing this way?

my X year plan was to get to north ontario and start getting hives running, but covid situation has kind of jumbled up plans. my dad is bringing me my hives/frames though, and i've been reaching out to local keepers/associations. bees aren't cheap tho! i should put up signs around town with my cell number for swarm collection - finding one would save me like 200-300 dollars.