There are several reasons why you may see honey bees (bees) around your home. Bees are present year-round, however, they are most active during warmer months from early March through early November. Bees begin to fly in search of food when daytime high temperatures rise to about 59 degrees. They fly in large numbers when temperatures rise into the mid 70s. Seeing bees may indicate that a bee hive is living on your property, searching for a new place to build a hive, or gathering food or water. Below we will take a closer look at the individual scenarios that involve seeing bees at your property.

Beehive Division and Bee Swarms

In the Phoenix area, with at least average fall and winter rain, there are enough weeds growing by January or February for bees to forage for food and to begin raising baby bees. As beehives grow in population and become crowded, bees’ natural instinct is to divide into a second hive. The worker bees begin creating a second hive by raising new queens from fertilized worker-bee eggs. The new queens hatch 16 days after the egg is laid. The new queen bees mate with drone bees within 7 to 14 days after they hatch.

Within the next few days, the new queen bees leaves the mother hive with  a significant portion (2,000 to 20,000 bees) of the population. This group of bees is called a swarm. Often, the swarm sends out scout bees to find a suitable location for a new home. You may see a couple of these scout bees buzzing around along the eaves of your home. Shortly after scout bees inform the swarm that your property would make a great place to build a new hive, upwards of thousands of bees can arrive!

New or Established Bee Colonies

A cluster of bees or steady bee traffic at a specific location can indicate the bees have a hive. In these cases, call or contact us to perform bee removal in Phoenix, Scottsdale, Mesa, Gilbert, and all other areas of Maricopa and Pinal counties. Fully exposed beehives can be caught and relocated to a home away from human activity. Now that’s a win-win – the bees get a second chance and it’s good for the environment.

Foraging Bees

Bees Gathering Food

Additionally, bees gather around a home is because you have flowering plants or water that they need. Bees need a constant supply of food and water to maintain a healthy colony. Similar to humans, bees need a mix of carbohydrates (from flower nectar), proteins, fats, vitamins, and minerals (from flower pollen) in order to maintain their health and raise baby bees.

Bees collecting nectar and pollen from flowering plants provide a valuable service to our environment and to food crops. Without bees, flowers would not be pollinated in sufficient numbers to produce fruits, vegetables, feed crops like alfalfa and corn economically possible for home gardeners or professional farmers. In order to maintain a large and genetically diverse population of bees for food production, we need bees in rural and urban settings; collectively, they are a vital contribution to our ability to have the foods we need and enjoy.

In most cases, we do not provide service to prevent bees from gathering food from flowers. It is normal for bees to collect food from flowering plants in your yard. In addition, the law prohibits the use of pesticides to indiscriminately kill foraging bees. But don’t worry, even Africanized bees will generally not sting if you are nearby while they are foraging for food unless disturbed.

Bees Gathering Water

Bees can get some moisture from the flower nectar they collect. I have observed that they always seek water from other sources. This can including swimming pools, waterfalls, water fountains, freshly watered grass, water puddles, or even the smallest sources of standing water. Bees collecting water from your pool or waterfall can be so intimidating that you lose the use of your pool or yard. This happens especially during the hottest months of summer. These bees generally do not sting unless disturbed by people in the area. We provide bee removal service in Tempe, Chandler, Apache Junction, Phoenix, Scottsdale, and areas of Maricopa and Pinal counties. We have developed bee removal methods to allow you to enjoy your pool and yard.