Why honey bees swarm and what is a swarm.

Honey bees are one of the only species to replicate in a very unique manner. Swarming is the process by which a new honey bee colony is formed when the queen bee leaves the colony with a large group of other bees such as the worker bees and drones. Swarm can contain thousands to tens of thousands of bees. They may seem very scary as they cover the sky and trees but they are very vulnerable when they are swarming to a new location. Swarming is mainly a spring phenomenon, usually within a two- or three-week period depending on the locale, but occasional swarms can happen throughout the producing season. We, honey bee keepers cant catch swarms mid air so we usually on regard the calls in which a swarm has already landed on a tree, bush or other object. When a swarm lands it will either take a break before going to a new spot or stay overnight and move in the morning. This usually means that if a swarm lands from 5am to 12pm there is a good chance they will be gone so make sure to call us asap. We will diligently remove the swarm while preserving the bee colony in order to relocate them to a more desirable place that poses no threat to humans. Below are a few example of what a swarm is. Note that bees inside a structure are not considered swarms. A swarm only refers to honey bees in the process of relocating via swarming from place to place to their final destination. Their final destination tends to be inside structures or places that can be threatening to humans so its best to catch them while they are as swarm. Once bees get into a structure they are very hard to remove and it can result in their extermination if they pose a viable threat.

Honey bees in Structures

Structure Removals take more time (days even). Some beekeepers will do it for free. If we can’t find a beekeeper to do it for free, we know some that will do it in the low range of 100-400 dollars. All based on case to case basis.

Honey bees once they have successfully swarmed from their old home they tend to settle into structure or odd places. Sometimes this could be the eve of a house or the trunk of a hollow tree. In either case it is very difficult to remove due to the bees having a lot of room to scramble and uncertainties in capturing the queen. Honey bees inside structures are difficult to remove but we do some of these removals throughout the year. However they don’t classify under our volunteer free swarm removal since it can take a lot of hours to coming back for a few days in order to remove the bees. Depending on the difficulty of the removal we will either remove it for free if its easy and in an isolated structure. We might charge for the removal if its a possible but very time consuming removal in order to compensate for our time since we are just volunteer honeybee keepers. We also might not take up on the job at all and refer you to other beekeepers or recommend extermination which in most cases is due to the inability to remove structures (for example stucco is very expensive to replace then the value of the bees in most cases) in order to reach the bee colony. Although bee populations did suffer greatly from 2008-2016 in astounding record numbers, they have been more steady lately and in any case human life is more important then a bee colony. If you are unsure how we can or what we will do in your bee problem then just contact us via phone or email and be sure to take pictures so that we can get you a better response.

Uncertain if it is a honey bee?

As you might know we are local beekeepers that will come out and check if what you have are honey bees or something else, for FREE. We are dedicated to saving as many honey bees as possible so better to call us and let us help you in discovering what you have on your hands, whilst it be honey bees or some kinds of wasp. Call us ASAP for free and fast swarm removal/rescue. Even if it happens to be hornets or yellow jackets, we have some beekeepers that’ll come out and even kill those for you since they always attack our honey bees in the fall. We will charge if we are removing/exterminating yellow-jackets/wasps/hornets but our price is always at least half or even less that of pest control since it is in your and our interest to get rid of any wasp species. Give us a call and we will let you know. We usually charge in the $50-150 range.