Portland Bee Swarms Are Safe and an Encouraging Sign

Portland is getting the love bite for bees – honeybees. Honeybees ensure good local harvests for most foods we love and add sweetness, light and health to nature and people alike.

Mayor Sam Adams is a proud beekeeper, Portland-based filmmaker Taggart Siegel's Queen of the Sun is getting rave reviews all around America, and more Portland-metro citizens are taking up the ancient hobby of beekeeping.

Did you know that swarms, far from being a danger to anyone, are bees' ways of saying, "We are stronger than Colony Collapse Disorder, and we want to make your flowers and fruits thrive?" A swarm is one queen and a few thousand of her daughters urgently searching for a new home, because they out-grew the old one.

Did you also know that bees are NOT to be blamed for 90 percent of "bee stings"?

Yellow Jackets are.

Bees deserve and need our praise, protection and support.

You'll know it's a swarm if a large cloud of little dark specks hums on by. If you are lucky enough to see them land somewhere, to rest and debate where to make their new home, contact a local insect exterminator.

Most know not to kill bees, instead they will give you the phone numbers of a few local beekeepers who will place the bees in what they seek and need - a new home.

 

LiveHoneyBees is teaching how to organically keep bees and catch local swarms. Visit them online at www.livehoneybees.com. Brian Lacy can be reached at [email protected] or 503-975-2391 to report a swarm. He also conducts public presentations -- More Than a Bee Movie and Our Bond With Bees.