Removing a swarm during the day

[PaleoPerson]

Why charge,if the swarms not wanted,let someone who needs it collect it.

Last night I spent 5 hours doing two cut-outs, 1 swarm collection and advising (call pest controller) on two swarms in the infrastructure of the building. I also travelled 40 miles, getting home at 10:30pm

I do not need nor particulary want the bees, but all of the people involved needed a problem to be sorted out as soon as possible.

I charge, and the the charge varies depending on how much work I have to do, how far I have to travel and my perceived view of the individuals personal circumstances.

For one last night I charged £0
another £10
another £ a bit more but still very cheap

I do not do this for profit, but I would not be able to continue to provide a service where and when needed without something towards my running costs. You may also note that for the cut out, I offered the bees free to anyone that wanted to assist. I did have a couple of offers (thanks guys but for one reason or another, I ended up doing the cut outs on my own.

I now have three colonies that require another 30 mile travel, equipment and time today to get them sorted.

If anyone wants the bees, they are available for £35.00 each plus a donation to the forum.

 

[Polyanwood]

If anyone wants the bees, they are available for £35.00 each plus a donation to the forum.

They must be a quality product or do you mean for the swarm?

 

[munch]

Well it wasn't me I've mainly been collecting from school at the mo. Although I did watch some old boy trying to collect a swarm of bees in a car park in Hampshire and had to smile. He wasn't having the best of luck and seemed to be rather flustered,maybe it was the crowd watching him or just his age lol.

But I have to say I'm shocked at how many swarms there are in the area, I know it's more built up than in France. But this is stupid,I'm getting about 20 a day,don't the beekeepers in Hampshire check there bees.???

 

[Hebeegeebee]

Payment received:

• A swarm of bees for my neighbour to hive
• A large handmade pork pie for each of us

Result

A handmade pork pie is a joy to behold!

 

[PaleoPerson]

They must be a quality product or do you mean for the swarm?

BOGOF!
Buy One Get One Free!!
No, it is per swarm lol....

They have now been reserved.

 

[chrismcd]

After knocking the swarm into nuc or skep I always smoke the area that the swarm was found on to hide the residue pheromones.... seems to work and you dont have to wait long for all the stragglers to find their way to their new accommodation...

I also point out that the stragglers are experienced foragers who will go back to the parent hive once they realise they have been left behind - but that can take a while.

Some sites seem to build up a large dose of pheromone - the bees then form these sad little clusters.

On another issue, I think the weather means there has been a real build up of swarms at the start of this working week. So, all the working beekeepers are having their pride and joys swarm while they are stuck at work. More swarms for us "active retired" to collect.

At this rate I am going to be trying out my Correx Nuc (courtesy of another thread) pretty dam soon!

 

[merylvingien]

Wasn't me, haven't collected any swarms this year, no where to put them and no one to give them too.

Did you get the call the other day Mike?
I gave your number as it was right near to you.

 

[BeeJayBee]

Wasn't me either!

As far as I know some local beekeepers charge to collect, if they're called out to bumble bees. Time and fuel are a consideration.

 

[DorsetB]

I charge fuel/mileage simply because the swarms I collect I pass on to people on the swarm waiting list in our association. If I did not charge, I would be out of pocket every time.

I have never seen so many swarms as this year though, and seem to be in more difficult places this year as well.

 

[Mike a]

Wasn't me, haven't collected any swarms this year, no where to put them and no one to give them too.

Did you get the call the other day Mike?
I gave your number as it was right near to you.

Yep got the call Paul thank you very much.
Although I had to pass it on to a friend of mine in the association as the lady said they were up behind her fascia board (had soo many calls over the last few days I might of got her mixed up with another caller). He said he would pop round and take a look and offer some advice.

Meanwhile I've been really busy collecting various cast swarms all over the place but for the last 3 of 4 days I had to collect swarms from the garden of a couple who live next door to a young lady who never inspects, treats or gives any form of general management other than adding another super. The young lady found my number on my association website and sent me a text earlier today to say she wants all the swarms back as they belong to her. I didn't bother to reply but I expect she will ring me and demand her bees back. I will simply tell her your bees were clustered in the garden next door, as soon as they landed and clustered they no longer belong to you but your neighbour and she asked me to collect them and take them away. Learn how to look after your bees and then they wont swarm and cause anyone else any bother.

 

[VEG]

Well said

 

[dudley]

Obviously being a responsible bee keeper means apiary management. I am relatively new to it and have lost a few swarms, especially last year, so for good public relations we should also offer a LOCAL swarm collection service free of charge, and yes it may cost us a couple of pounds in petrol.

If we do not the majority of people would do nothing about the cluster hanging at chest height on a convenient conifer. And then eventually it will move off, establish, and be real nuisance.

Tonight I re-sited bumble bees in a bird nest box, it was not in the way, not causing no problem, but they still wanted it gone. I charged £35 but would have done it for free if I suspected they may destroy them instead.

Tomorrow it's a cut out in a garage roof. Already made one visit to assess job, I know I will be there a couple of hours minimum, so quoted £50. They moaned about the £50 charge, tried to haggle, I stood firm, but they said ok.

 

[merylvingien]

Standard charge to treat (kill) honey bees and block up is around £80

Over the last week i have wasted countless litres of fuel travelling to far flung places to look at wasps, honey bees, more wasps, and yet more wasps. ALL of them were questioned to the point of arguing with me on the phone. Some even slammed the phone down on me, which i think is just down right rude.

Virtually each place i have been is mason bees. Only one offered me some fuel money.
As a business some may think its maddness not to charge a call out fee, but come wasps in a couple of weeks, the reccomendations alone will be lucrative (hopefully).
I have built a respectable business over the last few years and i will still collect swarms for free if i have somewhere to home them. But it annoys the hell out of me when people lie to me about what they are seeing, even when presented with photos to compare.

I stopped answering the phone this afternoon as it was getting out of hand with people demanding i turn up and kill mining bees and mason bees. Its just not on.

Question hard, if they put the phone down on you, they are lying about what they are seeing.

 

[region2]

I don't charge but I do suggestion a donation to charity or our association. Our swarm controller is very good at filtering out the dross - only honey bees when I arrive so far...

In my 1st year I was called out to a swarm about 20 miles away, I questioned the guy at length and was assured they were honey bees - got there and he had a wasp nest in an out house with bumblebees under its slab. His response was "Can't you just take them anyway?"!

What is scary is the public's attitude to swarms - we all know they're relatively harmless yet some reactions are almost phobic. Maybe the BBKA should run national adverts calming them down?

R2

ps. Is there a 3m limit for BBKA Insurance when colelcting at height?

 

[Polyanwood]

Sorry. don't know answer re height.

I've been thinking about how rude and and insistent some people are about having the insects removed from their property. It is as if they don't realise we are volunteers. Sometimes it even seems like they are blaming us for the mere presence of insects on their turf.

 

[DorsetB]

"ps. Is there a 3m limit for BBKA Insurance when collecting at height?"

There is a height restriction beyond which I believe your BBKA insurance will not cover you which is somewhere between 8-10ft from memory.


The other thing you are not covered for is dismantling the fabric of the building to get to the bees. Half the calls I got via the local council and police last week were for bees behind bargeboards, in chimneys, and in cavity walls, so I referred them back to the council.

Interestingly enough a couple of people then phoned me back to say the council now refuse to come out for any bee-related pest control, as they are telling people they are "protected" (which they're not).

I can only assume this is part of their cost-cutting and that they are hoping that "hobby beekeepers" will do the job for them.

 

[tonybloke]

had loads of calls this yr about bees ensconced in chimneys / roofs / walls.
most have been told that bees are 'protected'?
folk expect a beekeeper to come and collect bees for no charge as they are constantly hearing in the media how rare / expensive bees are!!

 

[DorsetB]

"folk expect a beekeeper to come and collect bees for no charge as they are constantly hearing in the media how rare / expensive bees are!!"

One lady lectured me on how I should give her "at least £100" for the swarm I collected as she had "done her homework" and her neighbour had told her bees were very rare and a "newkewluss " of bees was now well over that figure "if bought new".

Well worth travelling 30 miles on a Friday night and spending 2 1/2 hours on site just to hear those words of wisdom at the end.

No cup of tea and my dinner was in the dog by the time I got home.

 

[barratt_sab]

We’ve had one big cut out and one small cast collection. The cut out was behind weatherboarding on the side of a house. It was two stories up, but luckily all the weatherboarding was being replaced so we had scaffolding in place and we could remove the boards as we wanted.

The cast was about 20 feet up and required a cherry picker – which was already on site. Both jobs were for the landowner where most of our hives are, so there’s no charge there!

We had one call to a cut out that wasn’t practical for us – a listed building with bees in a wall cavity up at roof level.

We keep costs down by accessing our home-grown pool of free labour…

 

[pbh4]

We keep costs down by accessing our home-grown pool of free labour…

I've got one of those but I'm not sure it is cost effective!