Local Bee Services
Sacramento Area Swarm Season: February - August.
Noble Path Apiary is proud to endorse the following Sacramento Valley service providers. Heroes to homeowners, business owners, and bees alike, they rescue and relocate swarms and hives.
Photo Credit: Abe Blair
Got Bees? Call a Keeper.
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Sacramento Area Beekeepers Association
SABA maintains a list of Keepers who can help safely relocate swarms of bees for FREE throughout the greater Sacramento Valley. (Free services do not include Cut-Outs and Trap-outs). Scroll down the web page to find your region.
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Blue Green Horizons
Swarm Rescue/Relocation
Hive Rescue/Relocation
Cut-Outs & Trap-Outs
Owner, DW Schoenthal -
Resting Bee Face Co.
Swarm Rescue/Relocation
Hive Rescue/Relocation
Cut-Outs & Trap-Outs
Owner, Kati Bednar -
D.R. Watson Apiaries
Swarm Rescue/Relocation
Hive Rescue/RelocationOwner, Dave Watson
(916) 798-8550
Your BEEKEEPER Will ask:
Are they honeybees? Beekeepers will only rescue and relocate honeybees.
Is it a swarm or a hive? A swarm has no honeycomb, arrives suddenly, and only stays hours or days. It’s a hive when the bees build honeycomb and plan to stay.
What size is the swarm or hive? The size of a softball, football, soccer ball, basketball?
What is the height of their location? Is a ladder needed to access them, or are they higher than that?
What is directly below the swarm or hive? This may be pavement, grass, gravel, rocks, logs, berry bushes, etc.
Have the bees moved in? Have they entered the structure of a building or entered a hole in a tree?
Protecting bees is everyone’s concern. Most pest companies know to contact a local beekeeper if a homeowner calls about bees. A local beekeeper will relocate honeybees by placing them in a man-made hive box where they will feel safe and be able to build honeycomb. If you find a swarm or realize you have a hive forming, contact a local beekeeper right away, preferably one trained in swarm relocation and highly experienced, like those listed above.
While You Wait - All About Swarms
BEE SWARMS POSE VERY LITTLE DANGER
Let the bees be! “A swarm of bees” may conjure fear for those who are truly allergic to stings, or who imagine a fast-moving cloud of angry insects. Here’s why you’re actually quite safe:
Honeybees will typically only sting if they feel attacked. They are herbivores and do not bite or scratch (unlike yellow jackets). Unless you approach them with aggression, they will not approach you with aggression.
A swarm is a cluster of homeless bees. They own nothing and have nothing to protect except their queen. They are generally docile, curious, and totally focused on finding a new home.
Finding a home is their #1 concern. While homeless, they are at risk of attack by carnivorous birds such as Mountain Blue Birds, Stellars Jays, and Hummingbirds, by other insects and arachnids such as Yellowjackets, Crab Spiders, Jumping Spiders and Praying Mantis, and by mammals such as Skunks, Bears and Humans.
Swarming has a season, typically March - June in the Sacramento Valley region.
Bees are orderly and organized. Swarms initially land about 10-20 feet away from their original hive, while scout bees fly off to search for the perfect space for their colony to move to and begin anew. Though our eyes may not detect it, it’s a very organized process. Bee swarms leave their initial landing place soon after they democratically decide where they will permanently live. This can take hours or several days. This process is an amazing demonstration of spatial assessment, detailed communication, and majority-rules decision-making.
Swarms vary in size. As small as a softball and as large as a watermelon, swarms can weigh between 1-6 lbs!
Swarms roost at night. Without a home (hive), bees cluster together every night beginning at sundown for safety and warmth with the queen typically at the center.
Swarms need rescue by a trained beekeeper to prevent them from being injured by fearful people. Like many wild animal encounters, when bees make uninformed people scared, the bees tend to lose. Thank you for reaching out to a beekeeper for help!
