deanfl Loc: Georgia

Late yesterday we received a call from our next door neighbor….we have a nest of honeybees in our front yard tree. We are trying to locate a beekeeper to remove the bees. We do not want to kill the bees. We would appreciate any recommendations on finding a beekeeper(yes we are using Google). Has anyone had experience with something similar? Thank you.

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TerryVS

I'd probably start with the Georgia Bee Keepers Association. They have FB page as well as a web page: https://gabeekeeping.com/

deanfl Loc: Georgia

Thank you. I just now sent the president an email.

deanfl Loc: Georgia

Our neighbor called local bee keepers who came out to remove the bees. They believe they have the queen in a box. They will come back in a few hours to finish up.

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FredCM Loc: Central Illinois

Good. We had a swarm one 4th of July and the neighbors had a pool party scheduled. Bee keeper came, put down a hive, put the queen in the hive and left until very very early the next day to pick up the hive. Once the queen gets in the hive the rest of colony follows. Workers were out foraging, that's why he left the hive until the morning, to give those workers a chance to join the hive. Swarming bees are very gentle, unless they're Africanized. Nobody got stung. I stood next to the beekeeper while he was looking for the queen and scooping beens on to the hive panels. Very interesting. He wanted the bees, more than happy to provide his service.

deanfl Loc: Georgia

Yes, this now appears to be a win-win for the beekeepers and us. It is interesting and I have learned something new.

TerryVS

Great, thanks for updating. Good that they're moved to a better place and not killed.

DirtFarmer Loc: Escaped from the NYC area, back to MA

I had a guy keep bees on my farm for a few years. One year he decided he didn't want to do it any more so I had to take over. Of course I lost the hive over the winter since I didn't really know what I was doing. A local beekeeper helped me get a new package of bees and install them.

The process went something like this:

Clean out the hive of any debris but leave the comb.

Order 5 lb of bees. I got mine from a local commercial beekeeper who generates his own queens, but you can order them through the mail. The post office will call you to come pick up your package of bees. Soon, please.

The package is a box with a screen to keep the bees inside. There is a can of sugar syrup with a small hole in it to feed the bees. There is a small box with a queen in it and a couple workers to tend the queen. It is sealed with a candy plug which takes the workers a few days to get through.

Place the hive where you want it and take off the lid. Then move some of the frames aside so you can put the queen box in. Then you take off the top of the box so you can get at the can of sugar syrup and the queen box.

Take the box and whack it on the ground. That will dislodge the bees on the can of syrup so you can remove it without scraping a lot of bees off and injuring them. You then remove the can and the queen box. The queen box you place between some frames and move them together to hold them.

Then you lift the box, turn it upside down with the hole where the can was facing down, over the top of the hive. Shake the box, so most of the bees fall into the hive. Then place the box on the ground near the hive so the remaining bees can get out and go to the hive. This can be disquieting. Bees are flying everywhere around you. But it works.

Since the queen is in the hive the bees will stay in or near the hive.

All this is done without the need for any sort of protective gear. The bees are homeless. They have no hive to protect, so they are not agressive. (We used Italian honeybee strains, not Africanized). After about 3 days, the queen will get out of the box and since the queen and the bees have been in the hive during that time they have imparted their scent to the hive and it is theirs. Don't attack it after that.

Swarming is a natural process for healthy hives. When a hive gets too small to house all the bees (or the bee population grows too much) they generate a couple new queens, which fly off with some drones to mate. Somehow the hive decides how many bees to send with them. They then fly off looking for a new hive. The ones that are not captured by beekeepers probably have a low survival rate in today's world.

deanfl Loc: Georgia

Thank you for the detailed explanation. They told us that the few bees left will leave in a few days.

sippyjug104 Loc: Missouri

Honeybees need all the help they can get. Please treat them as though your life depended on it....for it does. Without bees, there will be famine.

Lucasdv123

About 20 years ago I was installing telephone service at a new residence. While walking back to my van I heard a lot of buzzing so I looked and low and behold there were lots and lots of honey bees coming towards me .being close to my van I opened the side door and got in so as to not get in they way of their migration.after a few minutes I saw more bees.about 5 minutes in there were no more bees going by.i never realizes that a company van with no back seats had child's lock so I was locked in the back of my company van.i call 911 and asked to have a cop swing by and open the side door for me.i was starting to sweat because it was during summer and the 10 minutes wait was getting me antsie so I pulled a long screw driver and started to open the door.it worked so I called 911 and canceled the call.

deanfl Loc: Georgia

The beekeeper did a post on the Nextdoor app with the attached photo….”the bees are fine and have been relocated to our yard they have their own home now. They are happy and healthy!”

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Moondoggie Loc: Southern California

Thanks for the information

RodeoMan Loc: St Joseph, Missouri

Thanks for an interesting post. I remember reading decades ago in the Oxford Unabridged English Dictionary about bee swarms and relocated the definition. According W. Ellis in the Modern Husbandman, there are four swarming of bees during the season each of which are named. Here is the quote from Ellis. "The 'swarm' is the first and greatest in number, the 'cast' is next, the 'colt' next and the 'spew' least of all" I'm not sure if modern apiary scholarship still holds with this. I am also pretty sure not many modern beekeepers know this, not that they need to.

LoisCroft Loc: Jonesborough, Tennessee

Very interesting post. We plan to start beekeeping next spring and are doing the necessary research to prepare. This is very helpful.