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The Davey Bulletin | September/October 2016
Ilia Donner worked to stay calm. A
swarming mass of bees had interrupted
his day as a quality auditor for Davey
on the Baltimore Gas and Electric
(BGE) account.
Donner had been walking through a
park in Baltimore County inspecting
line clearance work when he spotted
a large, black mass undulating on
a wooden stake supporting a new
tree planting.
"When I walked up to them initially
I didn't know what it was," he said.
"They were basically in a huge clump."
Hundreds of honeybees were
swarming together.
Anand Persad, manager, arboriculture
and plant sciences research at the
Davey Institute, said swarming is
a common practice among bees
'BEE' A GOOD STEWARD
Story idea submitted by Jeremy Ernst, Mid-Atlantic project supervisor, Davey Resource Group
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BULLETIN
when one queen is forced out of a
hive by another queen and must start
a new hive.
"This happens periodically every year,"
Persad said. "Bee swarm is something
that happens."
Persad said the safest course of action
to take if you encounter a bee swarm
is to call a local beekeeper.
"Leave it to the professionals," Persad
said. "In the summertime, it's a good
idea to keep a number for a local
beekeeping organization or extension
service handy."
Coincidentally, Donner took a basic
beekeeping course in college and
recognized the situation. He contacted
a local beekeeping organization and
led a beekeeper to the swarm, so
they could be relocated away from
the public park.
Donner said the beekeeper has
contacted him since the relocation to
let him know the hive is doing well.
"The hive likes its new home,"
Donner said.
Crystal Cheuvront, a forester with
BGE, commended Donner for calmly
and humbly handling the situation.
"Ilia is a good steward, an ally to the
honeybees and, more importantly, a
good representative of BGE," she said.
A similar situation occured at Davey's
corporate campus earlier this summer.
Fortunately, Davey employees
recognized the bees were swarming
and, as Donner did, contacted a local
beekeeper to relocate the hive.
"There is a lot of empathy for bees in
the big scheme of things," Persad said.
"Always call a local bee expert in a
swarm situation."
A local beekeeper collects a bee colony that started swarming on the parking lot asphalt at
Davey's corporate campus in Kent this spring in an incident separate from the Baltimore swarm.
