About Swarms

Swarming is the natural way a colony of honeybees reproduce. It happens when the worker bees raise a new queen who is almost ready to emerge from her cell. The old queen and thousands of flying bees leave their colony to find a new home and form a new colony. The swarming season depends on the weather but usually starts in April and continues until mid July.

If you find a swarm of Honeybees

For advice or removal, please follow the steps below. While bees are usually docile when swarming, leave them alone and keep people and pets at a distance!

Please follow these steps before you contact us:

1. What type of bees are they?

   The British Beekeepers Association (BBKA) web page can help you identify if it is a honeybee swarm or some other type of bee. We cannot collect other types of bees or wasps, move them or destroy them.

   Our volunteer beekeepers can only help with honeybee swarms.

   For information about bumblebee nests please see: Bumblebee Conservation Trust.

2. Where is the swarm?

   We are happy to help with most swarms which are outdoors e.g. in trees or hedges. If the swarm is in the structure of a property, eaves or chimney breast, or in a potentially hazardous location we may not be able to remove them. Please give as much information as possible when calling.

3. Is it in the Scarborough Area?

   The post code areas we cover are: YO11, YO12, YO13. YO14, YO15, YO16.

4. Contact

   Please go to the BBKA web site, ‘Swarm Collector’ to locate and contact your nearest Swarm Collector.