May 06, 2026
Philadelphia Bee Company/Facebook
Swarms can look scary, but the bees are usually not aggressive during this springtime reproductive process, according to Philadelphia Bee Company owner Don Shump.
Philadelphia Bee Company received three calls in quick succession shortly after 11 a.m. Wednesday. There was a swarm in Center City.
Dozens of honeybees had landed on a white painter's van parked near 18th and Sansom streets, right outside Tria wine bar. Though it looked fearsome, the swarm was gone in a matter of minutes once the bee pros arrived and scooped the insects into a box.
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Don Shump, the owner of Philadelphia Bee Company, dropped them off at Fox Chase Farm later Wednesday afternoon.
"The swarms are really — they're pretty docile," Shump said. "This is the most docile we'll find bees."
Shump doesn't even wear the thick gloves and netted veils associated with beekeepers on swarm calls. Handling the hives is better barehanded, he 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.
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.
"I would say after Fourth of July, the swarms pretty much stop," he explained.
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 — 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.
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.
Only a few bees remained at the swam site by 3 p.m.
"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."
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