Let me Rescue the Bees
A happy and successful honey bee hive will swarm. This is the way hives reproduce. The hive raises a new queen and then the successful queen heads out into the wild with a swarm of 20,000 bees to find a new place to live. It is natural.
Swarms of honey bees, though, often find their new home in a house or a tree near a house where they are not welcome.
It is expensive to hire an exterminator and unless they get the queen, the hive will not die. You do not want to spray your house with poisons. Why not let a beekeeper come and rescue your bees? I’ll box them up, take them away, and give them a good home.
I remove honey bees for free!
I am not a licensed exterminator. I can’t kill bees. I can’t charge you for removing bees.
I can remove bees before they become established. If they are still in a big clump, the bees are harmless. They do not like to sting when they are swarming. If you swat them or try to brush them with a broom they might sting, but generally they are busy finding a place to live and they will ignore you.
How to tell if you have honey bees.
Bees can be pests and there are lots of wild bees that sting and invade human space. Most of these are NOT honey bees.
Honey bees are brown or golden brown. They have furry little bodies. They are not fat, or shiny. They do not live in the ground or make paper nests or mud nests. They do not make holes in wood.
This is what a honey bee looks like:
A honey bee is about 1/2 inch long. See the fur? Wasps have no fur on their bodies.
A swarm may look like this in a tree:
or this on a house:
Bees like hollow trees and tight places under the eaves.
If you have a swarm Call Keith at (845) 623-4161.
I work on weekdays, but I can get to your house when I get home (around 6pm) or on the weekend. I can only do bees in Rockland County, NY or perhaps northern New Jersey as long as it is not too far.
Things that are not Honey Bees
THESE ARE NOT HONEY BEES. Don’t call me if the bees look like this:
Hi,
We have bees that look just like the honey bees pictured above, but they are living in many, many holes throughout our lawn. Do you have any suggestions for the safe removal of these bees? Thanks!
Honey bees live in trees or holes in houses about 10 feet off the ground.
Yellow Jackets live in holes in the ground.
I drown Yellow Jackets with a hose. You can try wasp sprays it you don’t mind having poisons spread around your lawn.
Keith
Hi there… maybe you can help me. I have a house close to you, and I have a swarm in my back yard. I don’t want to kill them with chemicals, but I can’t use the yard while they are there, and I’m afraid of getting stung. I’m more than happy to have you come and take them if you like. Would you possibly be interested in coming to take a look? Or do you have other recommendations?
I was wondering if I could purchase from you an old piece of honeycomb. I want to go and practice bee lining.
Stop by and you can have some pieces. I have heard that bee-lining works, but it sounds like magic to me. I will be interested in hearing how you do.
Keith
Hi there!
I am completely into the idea of starting my own hive. I’d been toying with the idea for years… And then when the Flow Hive went crazy on Indiegogo I ordered one on impulse. It won’t arrive until December, so I have lots of time to read and educate myself. I have a dilemma, though…. only after I got my heart set on caring for a hive, I found out neighbors on both sides of me have serious bee sting allergies. What are the odds??? I know they’d likely not get stung, but I’d still feel awful. So the search is on for an alternate location. I’d love to chat with you more about your experiences, maybe even tag along and help as you tend your hives to get my feet wet. If you’d drop me an email I’d really appreciate it!!
Your neighbors can be a show stopper. Normally a beekeeper can’t be sued because of bee stings because it would be nearly impossible to connect a random bee sting with any one hive. You can’t even be sure they were stung by a honey bee. Bees travel many miles. However, they would be able to complain about your hives and might be right in doing so.
You are right about the likelihood of your neighbors being stung, but their concerns are important.
I don’t schedule my time to work on bees. I try to fit it in between my weekend chores, so making an appointment is out of the question. You can stop by and say hi to the bees on the weekend, though.
Keith
I manage a business and have recently done some yard remodeling here – in the process we must have disrupted a honey bee hive. I’m looking to see if you could potentially come save them! If you could email me – I would love to try and get them saved as soon as possible. Thank you!
Honey bees start nests high up in houses, usually under the eaves. They will hardly ever make a nest lower than 10 feet from the ground. If you found a hive in your yard, then, if it is in the ground or foundation, it is yellow jackets. If it is a gray nest in a bush or tree it is a wasp nest.
Keith