For people with swarms:
We appreciate your interest in acting in the bees’ best interest. Swarms can be considered docile, as they are not defensive even though there are many bees flying around.
A. When you call someone about a swarm, please try to supply the following information:
- Location of swarm
- Distance from swarm to ground
- Size of swarm (bowling ball? Football? Cantaloupe? Grapefruit?)
- The time and day when you first noticed it, and your estimate of how long it has been there
- Your address
- The best phone number to reach, if subsequent calls are appropriate
- What the bees look like (bright yellow? Caramel? Brown?)
What is important for you to understand:
B. Beekeepers have jobs and family responsibilities and the like. They will respond to your swarm as soon as possible. However, time of day, getting the equipment they need, and the distance they need to travel to get to you will affect when they can arrive at your location. This is why we organize the swarm responder list by area of the city. We appreciate your flexibility and patience, and we understand how stressful it is for you to have lots of bees on your property.
C. If you reach a beekeeper who then is planning to come get your swarm, please do not keep calling other beekeepers in a “first come first served” strategy. It is disrespectful to people’s time and discourages them from future participation in this public service. It is DenverBee’s expectation that swarm responders will keep their commitments, and will communicate to you any unforeseen problems that may arise.
D. Basically, swarms are the means by which bees propagate. While a beekeeper may come out and “capture” your swarm in the afternoon, they may need to return in the evening to collect as many bees as possible. This means the beekeeper gets as healthy a colony as possible, and you get fewer confused bees on your property. We respect people’s property and privacy, and want our activity to be as least disruptive as possible. You may have bees at the site the next day, and these bees are swarm scouts who will safely die off.
E. If you have bees that appear to be inside a structure (house, garage, shed) this may require specialized skills and tools. For instance, if the bees are on the side of a building, in a corner, near a chimney, etc. they are likely going into a hole or other opening. Most beekeepers will not know how to properly extract bees in these situations, and it may also require carpentry skills. Please do not resort to gassing the area with bug killer and then sealing it up. It will only trap a mess inside the structure that will become more problematic as other animals discover it.
F. The swarm responders at DenverBee view swarm capture in three positive ways: as a service to the public, a chance to educate people on the value and behavior of honeybees, and a way to increase their personal hives. Many of the swarms that we capture go to new beekeepers or are used to support club hives that will help DenverBee members in the case of suffer hive losses. Each swarm is valuable to us!
G. Given that we value swarms, DenverBee swarm responders do not charge to collect swarms. We don’t charge for gas or anything. If any DenverBee swarm responder mentions a fee, please do not pay and let us know immediately by email, denverbeeclub@gmail.com.
You can download a PDF of this information by clicking the LINK.
Click the link to report a swarm.