- Home
- Swarm Form
Swarm Form
Swarm land on your property? Please call us at 585-412-8745 and we can route a beekeeper to your swarm. You can also fill out the form at the bottom of the page to alert us of the swarm and any other pertinent information. Please do NOT spray them!! If the bees are sprayed they will not survive and there is nothing we will be able to do to help them. Thank you.
Is it a Honey Bee or a Wasp/Hornet/Bumble Bee?
We will gladly come pick up a honey bee swarm if it is in your yard. However, please first distinguish if it is a honey bee or some other sort of bee that you are seeing.
- Wasps/Hornets/Yellow Jackets- Wasps and hornets make cone shaped grey paper nests in trees or hanging from the eaves of your house. Yellow jackets are ground dwellers living in small holes that deepen to a large colony size. If they are wasp, hornets or yellow jackets we do not come get them. Please call an exterminator for those to be sprayed. They will nest in your home and often can be heard chewing thru the dry wall. Honey bees do not do this.
- Bumble Bees- If they are bumble bees they usually do not bother people and they make a small nest in the ground, usually in an old mouse nest. All the worker bees die off at the end of the year except the new Queen who hibernates till the following year to start up a new colony again. Bumble bees are also in trouble and their numbers are rapidly declining, please do not spray them.
- Mason Bees- Mason Bees are gentle and look exactly like Honey Bees just 1/2 the size and are super fuzzy. They are excellent pollinators for your garden and pose no threat to you. They are a solitary bee but will nest together socially though they do not help each other with any colony functions. They are a solitary bee that does not sting. They can nest in a variety of places and their nest site is no longer than a drinking straw. Many people use dried bamboo cuttings to provide homes for them and encourage them in their gardens.
Why are the bees swarming?
Honey Bee colonies quickly grow in size in the springtime and if the colony runs out of space in their existing home, they will swarm with the old Queen and leave the colony to find a new home. The old Queen will leave with about half to 3/4 of the colony leaving behind a new Queen and a small amount of the colony which will rebuild in size in the coming months. Before they leave the hive they will gorge themselves on honey so they have enough food with them for the trip, that is why they are so docile when you see them hanging from a tree in your yard. Although honey bees are peaceful and in general do not go after you, protective gear should always be worn before attempting to relocate the bees to a new home. Please let an experienced beekeeper relocate them for you. It's very easy to do and the bees will appreciate it. Please do NOT spray the honeybees with any harmful spray. Bees are responsible for pollinating 1/3 of our food, so when you kill a honeybee you're not only hurting the bees but the environment and yourself. Without honeybees and other native pollinators, you would only have foods like Corn and Soybeans to eat. Fruits and vegetables that we enjoy every day simply would not exist because they need to be pollinated by a bee first before the plant can bear fruit.
Is it a Swarm or an Existing Colony?
If you see a large bunch of bees hanging from a branch or shrub in your yard and looks like the picture at the top of the page then it is a Swarm. If the honeybees are coming and going out of your house or other structure, then it is an established colony and is treated differently than a swarm. Established colonies will need to be extracted out of the house and this usually at minimum takes several days or weeks depending on the situation and method chosen to take colonies out of the structure. We personally do not do extractions because of the time involved but we will forward your information onto the local beekeepers in your area who can get the bees out for you. If it is a swarm we will come out and get the bees for you. Below are some pictures of what a honey bee colony living under the eaves of a building looks like from the front, side then after the comb and bees have been removed.
What will we do with the bees?
The honey bees will be taken back to our farm where they will be given a home of their own in our Apiary and will enjoy pollinating our garden and many other wild acres around us. They will be well taken care of!
Contact Us About Your Swarm!