Swarm removal vs. bee cut out and removal

I get tagged in a lot of social media posts for bee and swarm removals. Here comes the problem. There are way too many people without true knowledge & experience with bees commenting the following, "It is just a swarm. They will move on. Leave them alone, they are just looking for a home"

So sort of true. A big ball of bees hanging on a tree limb, the side of a house, a fence, or whatever is likely a swarm, true. They are just looking for a home, true. They will move on, also true. Here is the problem, bees are going to move on and are looking for a home, a home just like yours. If you like your home, odds are the bees will to. Bees love to build hives in eaves, walls, pool houses, in between the flooring of a two story, in a an elevated deck, storage buildings, just about anything we also find comfortable out of the weather.

A swarm removal is a quick, non invasive job. I am in and out usually within an hour. Nothing I have to tear up. I don't have to open up walls, pull of any flooring, cut open the eave of a house, or cut into the structure of a storage building. A swarm removal does not involve any of that. It is therefore considerably cheaper to have a swarm removed.

Once the bees have moved into a structure, whatever that structure is, I have to open it up. This involves hammers, pry bars, a sawzall (reciprocating saw), cutting, and so on until I have the hive exposed along with enough area to work in. Then ad the time and labor to cut the hive out, remove the bees, place them into a new hive box (10 frame deep to keepers), clean up, but it does not stop there. These bees are now irritated. I mean, I have just torn up their home along with all of their hard work, food stores, nursery where the young are being reared, and changed up quite a bit for them. 

After I have completed my part of the job, cutting open, tearing up, removing, relocating, and clean up, the home owner now has to wait a few days for the remaining bees to settle down and move on. Once that happens, the home owner now has to bring in a repairman, handyman, or contractor depending upon the severity of the cut out and removal. All of the above cost money.

All this to say, please stop posting on Facebook "it is just a swarm..." and feel free to share this link to help educate those posting such bad information for other homeowners. 

I write this in hopes it spares at least one person all the grief of a future cut out and removal by just calling when you see the swarm for the first time. 

For questions and more information, feel free to call me directly at 214-244-3871

Willie Grubaugh

Lead janitor, tractor driver, bee man, hay dude, and cow guy all in one. Farmer for short.

Enjoy the funny still image for the video cover. Pretty funny