Swarms and Bee Colony’s in buildings

Most bee keepers love swarms, if you have a swarm I am happy to remove it, if I am in the area. I don’t charge for removal.

Colony removal from building is $200 for the first hour and $70 each hour afterwards.

This price difference demonstrates the different in difficulty in removing a colony from inside a building and a swarm.

Bee colony’s in buildings

If you have a colony in a building, such as living in a wall, roof I might agree to come and remove it. For this I charge $200 for the first hour this includes travel time to and from your place and $70 per hour afterwards.

Often to remove the bees in a building, that section where they are living will need to be pulled apart, this does damage that section. You will have to repair it yourself or get someone else in to repair it.   

The different between a colony and a swarm is the swarm has just arrived, they have not built any honeycomb, swarms are just bees in a ball, hanging out trying to find a new place to live. Bee colonies have moved in, they are building comb, they fly off one be at a time, when the temperature is above 12 degrees and return with bags of pollen on their legs.

A bee colony living in a wall will build up comb for storing honey and brood. If the colony has been there for a while this can be quite a large amount. If the bee colony dies or is removed and you don’t also remove the comb. This comb will decay as the bee colony is not managing this comb anymore. Then bee pests will move in like wax moth or small hive beetle. These pests will feed on the honey, grow in numbers and will slime out the hive. This slime out and the decay is smelly and yucky. It can seep through some materials like gyprock leaving staining. 

If you are in the unfortunate position of having a bee colony living in your building.