What to do when you find a swarm of honey bees?
CALL: 250-900-5787
EMAIL: swarms@capitalregionbeekeepers.ca
Members of the CRBA will help homeowners and businesses collect and re-locate swarms of honeybees.
What is a swarm?

When honeybees find their current home too crowded or uncomfortable, the queen will leave and take half her hive with her. The swirling mass moving through the air is impressive but not dangerous. Those that have left with the queen have gorged on honey and are happily following her to a new home. The queen and her entourage may settle on a warm flat surface like a sunny wall or chimney or cluster on the branches of a nearby tree to wait while scouts look for a new home. That is when a member of our swarm team can often wrangle them into a temporary hive and re-locate them to more suitable quarters.
DO’s
- Call our number and identify where the bees are located.
- Close nearby windows.
DON’TS
- Do not spray them with insecticide.
- Do not shoo them away with a broom.
- If they are in your fireplace chimney, do not start a fire. They tend to move downward when smoked.