Swarm Retrieval & Colony Removal
If you have a swarm of honey bees or have honey bees living inside of a structure, there are many beekeepers willing to help! Please don't spray the bees and do your best to identify that they are in fact honey bees. Click on the Swarm List link below and you will be directed to the New Jersey Beekeepers Association website's map where you can locate beekeepers near you that you can reach out to.
Swarms
Swarms are a reproductive split of a honey bee colony. Half of the colony leaves with the original queen to find a new home. Swarms will often be seen as a ball or cluster of bees hanging in a tree or on the surface of a structure.
Established Colonies
If you see honey bees that are coming in and out of a structure, like the siding of a house, or the inside of a tree, you likely have an established colony. Removal of a colony usually involves cutting into the structure to remove all the bees and comb, this is called a "cut-out."
Honey Bee
The Honey Bee is lightly fuzzy with a black and amber body that is about half an inch long. Honey Bees are normally very docile unless provoked and they can only sting once. The stinger is left in the skin until scraped away.
Wasps & Hornets
Wasps and Hornets typically build paper nests that you see hanging from the side of the house or in a tree. Yellow Jackets usually build nests in the ground or in a cavity such as a rock wall, but some species can build aerial paper nests.
