Bob Sitko, our Swarm Chaser Chairman, is MBHA”s unsung hero.  He takes calls from the public all day every day and tracks information on metro-wide swarms.  Sometimes he gets calls about wasps and bumblebees, a perfect chance to educate the people about the differences and what to do.  I am not an expert swarm collector but here is how it goes for me.

Bob calls and gives you a location and the contact person's phone number.  It takes about two hours or so of your time to collect the bees.  I call the contact person to get a location and ask for a photo to confirm they are honeybees and how high off the ground they are. Then I have a spot ready to set up a hive such that I know where these rogue bees are going to be relocated for a permanent safe residence and take care of them.

The bees may swarm away before I arrive or set up and evaluate the swarm. They have their own plan. I always ask if the contact person knows when the swarm arrived and I call them just before I leave to make sure they are still there. People seem to gather and it is a great time to educate the public about our pollinators. If you see a swarm in action, even if you missed collecting it I hope you find joy in witnessing this SPECIAL natural event.  It sounds like a noisy hurricane. If you are near a swarm but not aware of it, you will be thinking “Why am I hearing bees?”.  Very rarely have I been stung by collecting a swarm.  I usually have my suit tucked in and a baseball cap on to keep my veil away from my face.

Equipment I bring with me: Bee clothing, branch loppers, an 8 or 12 foot ladder, liquor box with all holes and bottom retaped, clear package tape and a bee brush or two.  I travel to the site and evaluate if it is safe to collect these bees.  Are they too high?  Is my ladder going to be stable and tall enough?  Do I have an assistant to help you? Does the assistant know their role and do they feel safe? If it is not safe to collect, leave the bees as they will be fine without your help. Your safety is more important than the bees. If the swarm can be collected safely, then I trim branches out of the way to position the ladder. I put a liquor box underneath the swarm so it will fall into the box when brushed off the branch.  They usually fall together with a thud. They are docile…..they have nothing to protect, no brood or food and scout bees are looking for a new home for the group. Think of bees that are either punch drunk or heavily ladened with honey to tide them over until they find a new location or I/we collect them. It could be up to three days before the scout bees find a suitable space. Close the liquor box once full of bees; hand the box to someone on the ground. It is impossible to safely walk down a ladder with a full box of bees. Next tape the box with tape that I have already prepared in strips….it is hard to pull off tape with bee gloves. When I get to the place they will be stationed, I open the new hive box, remove 4-5 middle frames and dump and or brush the bees into the hive box and replace the middle frames gently as if  installing a package and pray they stay.

Other things can happen: 1) You missed collecting the queen and so the whole process needs another round of collecting. 2) You missed most of the bees but got the queen and so you can put the box on the ground and cut a door on this box and wait a few hours for the bees to all walk into the box with the queen. The bees just outside the entrance of the box will fan their wings the scent of the queen with their butts up in the air to let the other bees know where she is. 3) Another option: with the property owner’s permission, cut the branch. Put the whole branch over the box and hit the branch with a good jolt to let the swarm drop into the box. 4) If I didn't get all the bees, the stragglers may return to their original colony or find another colony to sneak into. 5) The bees reject their new location and swarm away later that day or week. 6) Foundation is a more enticing home for them to entice them to stay rather than new foundation.

Email me if you have questions or better suggestions:  [email protected]

I am a MHBA  hobby beekeeper member who has kept a couple colonies of bees in Minnetonka for more than a decade. I raise bees for my fruit tree production and gardens. I rarely have a honey harvest.  Bees are misunderstood even by their keepers. I hope by collecting swarms that urban beekeepers will be allowed to legally coexist with close neighbors, especially with those allergic and afraid of insects that buzz. Unlike Alex King, I cautiously collect bees.  Remodeling homes to collect bees is not in my wheelhouse.

Grace Butler