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Swarms, Swarms, everywhere there's swarms...

5/23/2020

 
This has been a crazy year for swarms! I’ve had close to 100 calls about “swarms.” I want to talk about why I put that word in quotation marks.
When you see a cluster - or ball of bees - hanging in a tree, on a fence, or any other place where you can clearly see the bees are not living inside of something, that is a swarm. That is an easy pickup for any beekeeper, and most will come pickup the bees for free. If the beekeeper wants to charge you for an easy swarm capture, call someone else. And, please don’t ask the beekeeper for money for the swarm. We don’t pay you, unless it’s a bottle of honey for the call.
When you have bees living inside the wall of your home, that is no longer a swarm situation. That is what we call a cut-out. This requires a professional, licensed contractor to remove this hive. If someone offers to do it for free, that's between y'all. I don't want the liability myself, but to each their own! :) 
I’ve heard so many times over the years, “well, I sprayed the ones I saw” or “I plugged up their entrance/exit.” Let’s talk about why those are bad and/or ineffective methods.
If you spray the ones you saw, that only kills the ones you saw. There are thousands more potentially living inside your wall. Bees build hives, and they aren’t typically tiny. Think about the length of a tree, their natural habitat. I’ve seen a hive built in about ¾ the length of a tree before.
If you block their entrance and exit, they’ll just find another one. Or, they’ll die and leave behind a mess that will have negative side effects like honey dripping through your wall, or vermin or other insects damaging your home, not to mention a foul odor.
Please call a professional. Midwest Bee Removal is my recommendation. 816-217-4214. I’ve actually added his information to my voicemail because I’m getting so many “swarm” calls.
Finally, let me say this, for the record. If the bees are living inside a tree, leave them alone. Let them bee! Unless you are worried because you are allergic, let them do their thing. We need to share this planet with all living creatures.  
 

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Blake bahora
5/24/2020 05:50:18 pm

Do you have any tips or recommendations for how to make a swarm happy once they are in a hive. While mowing the pasture today I found a swarm on a very low willow branch by our pond. I went and got another deep, feeder, bottom and top. Because of the location of the swarm it was easy to get them in the deep. I left them with the lid off for about an hour hoping we got the queen and the stranglers would follow. It seems to have worked! And I plan to move them to the apiary yard we fenced off closer to dusk. But now I’m wondering aside from a feeder full of food which I did is there anything else I can do to convince the bees they want this box to be there new home? I was super shocked to find a swarm but it’s a great learning experience for sure! Such a unique feeling moving swarming bees.

Mia Evans link
9/3/2021 06:00:45 pm

Thanks for pointing out that a professional is needed when you find bees inside your home. I will definitely look for a bee removal expert tomorrow. It's because I found out that there are bees starting to nest in my garage this afternoon while parking my car.


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