Swarms                   
 

Spring is the time of year that honeybee colonies start to reproduce. Honeybees reproduce by casting swarms. In a strong hive, the bees prepare themselves by gorging on honey. Then 1000's of bees, along with the queen leave the hive all at the same time. They will gather on a limb or in a shrub or sometimes in odd places, while the scout bees find a suitable place to build a new hive. They could stay in this spot for a few hours or a couple of days. During this short window of time, a beekeeper can gather the swarm and place them in a man made hive and put the bees in the apiary. That's my goal! If you see or hear of a swarm in your area, please give me a call ASAP! I will come capture the swarm at no charge and put those bees to work in one of my bee yards. If at all possible email or text me a picture of the swarm along with as many details as possible. If I am not able to come get the swarm, I'll pass along your information to some other local beekeepers I network with who may be able to help.

Swarm Traps

Setting swarm traps is sometimes called bee fishing. A beekeeper will set a baited hive in hopes of catching a swarm of honeybees. I set several swarm traps each year, both around our bee yards (to catch any swarms from any of our hives I might have let get ahead of us) and in areas I think likely to produce a wild swarm. If you have an area you think would be a good place to set a swarm trap, give me a call. If we catch a swarm, I'll give you some honey. Catching a swarm before they move into someones wall is alot easier than removing them once they have made themselves at home.

Cutouts

If honeybees take up residence inside a wall or some other area that could cause a conflict with people then they have to be moved. The process of opening a wall and removing the bees and the comb is called a "cutout". Siding, sheet rock, panneling, etc. is removed to expose the hive. Then the beekeeper physically cuts the comb out of the structure. This is a labor intensive, hot, dirty job. I will do cut outs but there is some expense involved. I am mainly in this for the bees to add to my stock, but I need to cover some time and gas money when spending the better part of a day elbow deep in angry bees. Each situation is unique. If you have bees living in a wall or some other area, give me a call and we'll see what I can do to help. Pricing for cutouts is $300 for the first 4 hours and $100 per hour after that, plus I keep all bees, comb, and honey removed from the structure. I don't sell this honey, I feed it back to the bees to help them survive being transplanted. Most jobs take about 4 hours but some will take more depending on location of the hive, size of the hive, ease of access, etc. This price does NOT include any repair work. You will need (and want) a qualified building contractor to make the necessary repairs to your home or building. My job is to remove the bees, and while I have construction experience, I am a much better beekeeper than carpenter. 


Trap Outs

In cases where the bees have moved into a structure or a tree that can not be opened for some reason, we can set up a trap hive. This is a long process of getting the bees to move out of the structure and into the new hive, then removing the trap hive and sealing up the old nest. Sometimes it's the only option.




 Remember:  The average honeybee hive has 40,000 to 60,000 bees in it. It takes alot of bug spray to put a dent in that kind of a population. If you do manage to kill the bees living in your wall and do not open the wall and remove all the comb and honey, you will have a horrible mess. Unprotected (by bees) honeycomb draws other insects, like Small Hive Beetles and Wax Moths, which will cause the honey to ferment and the wax to rot, eventually seeping through the wall and ruining everything it touches. Additionally the dead bees and brood will rot and stink. The old hive site will also be attractive to future swarms, so you may have bees move back in.

Having honeybees in your home or building is a real mess. I am truely sorry if you have the misfortune to have to deal with this problem. Do yourself (and the bees) a favor and have the bees professionaly removed, either by us or another beekeeper. Don't compound the problem. If you are outside our area I can more than likely refer you to a professional bee removal service.



Contact info:
email: mike@buffalolick.com
phone/text: 770 554 1139
Honeybee only removal  - serving Metro Atlanta, Athens, and Lake Oconee area.

Some pics of my bee removal adventures


May 23, 2011

Sometimes I get excited and forget to ask the right questions. Happened today. This was a swarm call, and I didn't ask enough questions before we jumped in the truck and took off to get these bees. My friend Jim Saye was over to help pull honey off some of our hives when we got the call, and he went with me. Thinking it was a swarm, I was totally unprepared for what we found...bees in the sofit. Luckly, we were able to borrow some tools, and scrounge up enough string to tie the comb into frames to pull off the job. The bad part was we did it all with just a viel. No suit, no gloves, no sleeves and in shorts. I'll ask more questions next time!



May 2, 2011

Caught this swarm in Monroe, smooth and easy! Wish they all were like this one!
Was so fast and easy I had them in the box before I remembered to take a picture!



April 27, 2011

Let one of my own swarm...oops! Luckly we caught them. Not without some trouble...Up in  a pine tree 16 feet off the ground,  is not the place you want to take a sting in the forehead!



March 14, 2011

Did a removal today in Monroe. Hive was in an old camper. Owner said the hive had been there for over 25 years.





March 7, 2011

Our first cut out of 2011! Thanks Mr. West for calling us to remove this hive! just posting the first part of three here. See the rest on our YouTube channel "buffalolickfarm"

July 28, 2010

Here is a cut out we did in Decatur. It was in the attic and man was it ever HOT! This hive was huge, one of the largest I've ever removed..it just kept going and going. Removed the part in the wall first and then noticed they were in the ceiling too.




July 19, 2010

Here's a cutout we did in Loganville. Another that our beek friend and neighbor Ed Durden turned us on to and helped out with...Thanks Ed!






July 14, 2010

Here's a cut out we did in between the floor joists in a crawl space here in Loganville





June 2010

Did this cut out in the Suwanee area...these bees were MEAN! It doesn't look it from the pic, but the hive was massive. It extended into an eave over a bay window the floor below. The grey thing in the blurry pic at the bottom left of the comb is a dead squirrel! Poor thing had found its way into the hive and they stung it to death and had started to encase it in wax and propolis. Amazing! If this had been the first cut out I ever did, I might not have ever done another....it's why the fee is $100/hr. after the first 4 hours.






May 24, 2010

Started a trap out at a church in Monroe. Doing a cut out just was not an option.



Update: We trapped out as many bees as possible from this hive. They made a new Queen and the new hive is now part of the apiary at the farm in Greensboro


May 18, 2010

This is Henry County cutout round 2. We could not get at the bees from the outside because of how the walls came together, so we went into the wall from inside the house.





May 17, 2010

Monster cut out in Henry County. The owners of the property say that there has been a bee hive in this wall since 1968. This farm house has another hive in the front wall, going back for it.




April 28, 2010

If you spray the hive with 2 cans of wasp and hornet killer, douse it with gas and set it on fire, then there's not much I can help you with. These tree service guys had been stung many times trying to clear a tree that fell down in a storm and had bees in it. I just wish they had called me sooner, rather than later. Oh well..made a good contact for future bee trees.



There were still many bees flying around and very angry...just nothing I could help with.



April 26, 2010

Picked up a swarm from a county park in Monroe, Ga.



April 6, 2010

Got a call to do a cut out in the Lake Oconee area. This is what the space bees need to get in your wall can look like. Just a 1/2 inch gap was all it took. These gals had just started building themselves a home.