Honey Bee Swarms
If you have identified a honey bee swarm, we may be able to help
The Basingstoke & District Beekeepers’ Association receives a small grant from Basingstoke and Deane Borough Council to provide a honey bee swarm removal service in Basingstoke and the Borough Council area. This goes towards paying the travel expenses of volunteers from the association who help members of the public when a swarm of honeybees appears from May to August.
We are not able to collect wasps, hornets, solitary bees or bumblebees. More information on Solitary bees can be found here. Pictures of wasps, hornets and bumblebees can be found on the British Beekeepers website.
YOU WILL be charged £20 if volunteers are called out for swarms that are not honeybees. Please ascertain what type of flying insects you have before calling us. Please read the section below to help identify if what you have is a honey bee swarm.
If you are certain you have found a swarm of honeybees please contact the swarm co-ordinators on:
07580 528482
Identifying honey bee swarms
There are two resources available which can help you to identify a honey bee swarm:
- The Basingstoke Beekeepers Questionnaire – download a copy and follow the steps
- The British Beekeepers website, which also contains several helpful pictures in their guide
Bees normally swarm on a nice sunny day late morning or during the afternoon.
Honey bee swarm removal, Basingstoke
Collecting a swarm will involve a minimum of two trips. The beekeeper will arrive and hopefully manage to get the swarm into a box. The bees are then left so that all the scout bees return. The bees should not be taken away immediately or a large number of ‘orphans’ will be left behind. The beekeeper will return to collect them at dusk. The time obviously depends on the time of year. It can be quite late in June.
The beekeeper will hopefully find a home for the swarm where they can be cared for by a trained beekeeper.
Please note, we cannot remove swarms from chimneys or other inaccessible places.