MORE:\u00a0State grant to fund planting of 500 new trees along Meadow Lake in FDR Park<\/a><\/p>\n Don Shump, the owner of Philadelphia Bee Company, dropped them off at Fox Chase Farm later Wednesday afternoon.<\/p>\n “The swarms are really \u2014 they’re pretty docile,” Shump said. “This is the most docile we’ll find bees.”<\/p>\n Shump doesn’t even wear the thick gloves and netted veils associated with beekeepers on swarm calls. Handling the hives is better\u00a0barehanded,\u00a0he explained, in case he needs to grab the queen. Shump captured the Center City swarm with little more than a nuc box, a lightweight container typically outfitted with five frames, and a cattle tag for scooping.<\/p>\n It’s peak season for swarming, a natural reproduction process wherein a bee colony splits in two and a new queen reigns over the splinter group. Shump said his company has been receiving multiple swarm calls each day, a trend he expects to continue for another week or so. Swarming usually tapers off in the summer.<\/p>\n “I would say after Fourth of July, the swarms pretty much stop,” he explained.<\/p>\n The buzzing visitors to Tria weren’t a typical swarm. According to Shump, it’s unusual for the bees to land on cars and they don’t typically swarm in bad weather. (The morning’s initially clear skies, he said, probably tricked them.) Normally, they favor sticks or trees \u2014 as was the case for the swarms outside Mom’s Organic Market earlier this week. Shump said he answered two separate calls involving two different hives to a tree outside that Center City location earlier this week.<\/p>\n A few stragglers were still flitting around the white painter’s van on 18th Street around 3 p.m., as Tria bartender Maeve Rooney was quick to point out. But the remaining honeybees weren’t bothering any patrons.<\/p>\n Only a few bees remained at the swam site by 3 p.m.<\/p>\n “If you see the swarms, it’s nothing to fret over,” Shump said. “You don’t have to panic. They’re really intimidating, particularly when they land, but if you see one, you can call us at the Philadelphia Bee Company, you can call your local beekeeper, and we will come and pick those up.”<\/p>\n Follow Kristin & PhillyVoice on Twitter: @kristin_hunt![\"Bees](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/050626_bee_swarm_center_city.width-704.jpg\")
Kristin Hunt\/for PhillyVoice<\/p>\n
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