Collecting a swarm
If you live within a few miles of Isleham we would be very happy to collect any swarm that might arrive on your land - subject to practicality of collection.
If a swarm arrives and settles on your land, your best course of action is to contact a beekeeper (e.g. ourselves) ASAP. If you postpone doing so, the swarm will move on to its new home within a day or so and that might well be in your chimney or cavity wall, from where they will be much harder, if not impossible, to remove.
Provided the bees are honey bees (and only honey bees do properly swarm), then we can come out and capture and remove the bees for you free of charge. The following information may be of interest to you:
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How are they captured?
Dependant upon their position, the swarm is either encouraged to enter into the collection container, or shaken off into the container. This is generally then set on the ground with one edge raised a couple of inches and left until evening. During this time flying bees and scout bees will return to the box (attracted by Queen pheromone) and in that way the whole swarm will be collected. Some beekeepers try and short cut this process with the result that only part of the swarm is removed and the landowner continues to be annoyed by bees trying to return to the, now missing, swarm.
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What happens to the swarm next?
On taking away a swarm we will first quarantine it to ascertain that it is disease free (there are several destructive diseases now in the UK which must be notified to the authorities by law - see diseases section). This takes a couple of weeks. Provided it is disease free then it will either be used to start a new hive, or united with an existing hive, depending upon requirements at the time.
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Insurance
We are fully insured by the BBKA (British BeeKeepers Association) in regard to swarm collecting, and any public liability issues resulting directly from it.
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Cost
We do not charge for this service - you get rid of unwanted bees, we benefit by the gain of them. We would only charge to cover travelling costs if we had to travel over 10 miles to a collection site.