Swarm Help

A swarm is the way a colony reproduces. The queen, along with a portion of the bees from the parent hive, set out on their own to find a new home. The remaining bees raise a new Queen.

A swarm of honey bees is an impressive sight to see. If you are fortunate enough to see one in flight, it will seem to appear out of nowhere as a small tornado or cloud of flying bees. If it decides to stop on your property, it will form a mass of bees, usually on a tree limb, but it could land on just about anything stationary. Don’t panic, swarming bees are very docile, since they have no home to protect. With that said, you should not attempt to handle the swarm yourself. Instead, you should contact a local beekeeper who has the right gear and expertise to remove it from your property. Also, unmanaged bee colonies, in the wild, find it hard to survive on their own due to various new parasites and diseases. By calling a beekeeper you will help the swarm survive.

The beekeeper may ask various questions which will help to apprise the situation.

Examples are:

How long has the swarm been there?

About how large is the swarm? (ie. size of a softball, basketball, beach ball)

What is the swarm attached to?

How far off the ground is the swarm?

What is the property address and are you the property owner?

Contact the closest beekeeper from the list below:

Anne Foster – (330) 317-7197 Shreve and surrounding area

Joe Kovaleski – (740) 632-7500 Jefferson & Harrison Co.

Tom Oakes – (330) 465-9832 Southwest Wayne Co.

Chris Merkle – (330) 828-2395 Orrville and surrounding area

Eli Troyer – 13922 Arnold Rd. Dalton

Ethan Urfer – (330) 407-3642 Tuscarawas and Holmes County

Randall Westfall – (330) 464-1451 Wayne Co. & Stark Co.

Ken Shonkwiler – (330) 301-5811 Wooster

Sandy Chenal – (330) 720-4084 Rittman and surrounding area

Jay Stoltzfus – (330) 473-5145 Millersburg 

Merle Griffith – (419) 869-3180 Ashland

Victor Lawrence – (419) 606-0642 Ashland

Jacob Lawrence – (260) 243-0323 Nova

Ron Zickefoose – (330) 466-3642 Northern Wayne County

Glenn Turner – (330) 317-4529 – Muskingum County

Bill Hall – Happy Honey Bee Habitats – (614) 309-9980 Wayne / Holmes / Summit / Medina/ Stark/ Ashland Counties. Bill also specializes in cut-outs.