Indulge me for a moment....a swarm and a package of bees are very different things.

I'm a bookworm turned beekeeper, so forgive me for being picky with my beekeeping vocabulary.   I've been in conversations with beekeepers where words are slung around and I have to wonder sometimes if we really know what the other is talking about?   I love my fellow beekeepers, and mostly take these conversations as learning opportunities for myself - rather than be too irked at another wonderful beekeeper.  

There's one mis-use of terms that I cannot overlook, though.   Beekeepers at times use the term 'swarm' instead of the word 'package.'   'So what?', you might be asking.     Well, there's a very big difference.  To me, swarms are sacred treasures.  A swarm consists of a queen and her daughters and a few of her sons.  Bonded together by their beloved queen, they are on a mission to find a build their new home.  It is a likely a very healthy group of bees, and according to Gunther Hauk and Rudolph Steiner,  a swarm has an amazing vitality.   These sisters are primed and ready to build a new home for their mother to begin laying eggs.   The drones (brothers) are a bit more mysterious in their roles - but there are definitely some included in the swarm. 

Swarms can be from 'wild' hives and this can mean that they are from survivor stock - naturally bred to have the traits to withstand diseases and pests.  

Swarms are key to our hope for honey bee survival.  They are part of supporting genetic diversity and an overall healthy honey bee population.

Packages of bees are random bees dumped into a mesh and wooden box.  Some of them may or may not be related.  A questionably bred queen in her own little box is then attached to this package of bees, along with a can of high fructose corn syrup.   This box is then shipped hundreds of miles or more, in strained conditions, and finally put into a new hive box by the end user beekeeper. 

You can hopefully see how it's hard to bear hearing a well meaninged beekeeper mis-using the word swarm when they are referring to a package of bees.

Ok, stepping down off my horse.   Had to get that off of my chest.