Swarm Reporting and Management

If you wish to report a swarm of bees contact the Swarm Officer:
Phone: (preferred contact in an emergency)

(an alternative, where the report is not urgent)

If you are unsure that you have a honey bee swarm to report, please see below.

Members of the Public:

With the decline in the honey bee population, the good management of bees has become increasingly important to us all. Swarms are a vital resource for both new and experienced bee keepers and the following section is designed to explain the HWBKA swarm reporting and management process.

The season: Honey bees start swarming from May onwards through to July, but bees do not follow the rule book and have been known to start swarming in April with one hive swarming as late as end of September!

Area of responsibilty: The HWBKA have defined an area around High Wycombe where we will take responsibility for the response to a honey bee swarm notification (see our contact telephone number and email address at the top of this page).

This map shows our area of interest but if you wish to report a swarm outside this area, please contact the appropriate Bee Keepers Association, as follows:

• Mid Bucks BKA - Tel:

• South Oxon BKA -

• Chalfonts BKA - www.chalfontsbeekeepers.co.uk/ Tel:

• Slough and Windsor BKA - slough-windsor-maidenhead Tel:

click map for larger view

First, be sure you are reporting a swarm:

High Wycombe bee keepers will help you with a swarm of honey bees, but we cannot help you with hornets, wasps and bumblebees. Please use the following identification information to ensure you are reporting a honey bee swarm.

Honey bees:

click for more detail

Honey bee swarms include thousands of bees and when in flight will darken the sky. They can land anywhere (branch of a tree, fence, wall, roof of a shed etc), but once they have landed, they will often form a football sized pear shaped mass. If the weather suddenly gets cold or wet, the bees will remain in this situation for hours or days, but if the weather is fine, they will usually move off within a few hours.

It is therefore most important that you report the swarm as quickly as possible, allowing time for a bee keeper to attend site and remove the swarm. We do not charge for this service, but the HWBKA is a registered charity and our members are unpaid volunteers, who will offer you the opportunity to donate to our cause, if you wish to support bees and are content with the service provided.

Please Note 1: Bee keepers will not attempt to enter the fabric of a building to collect a swarm as our insurance does not cover us for this eventuality. However, we can direct customers to local Pest Control Officers who are known to be 'bee friendly'. They won’t destroy bees unless there is no alternative!

Please Note 2:The Swarm Officer and those collecting swarms will do their very best to respond to a swarm report in a timely manner, but this is a volunteer service and relies upon the availability of collectors.

Bumble or solitary bees:

During the summer our gardens are full of bumblebees which come in a wide range of colours and sizes. Unless provoked they will take no interest in people, simply intent on getting on with their pollinating and nectar gathering role. If you discover a colony of bumble bees (typically in an old bird box, behind a fascia board, in a hole in the ground etc), they should be enjoyed and it is best to let them get on with their lives.

If the colony is causing a real nuisance, bumble bee colonies can usually be moved to a new location, but specialist help will be required. More info: , email has a sanctuary for bumblebees, but he may charge for the removal process. Web site

Hornets:

Hornets are large (30 to 40mm), noisy, wasp like insects, that live in small colonies. They can look and sound quite intimidating, but they are rare, do no harm and should be left alone.

Wasps:

Wasps (15 to 20mm long) can be a real nuisance, and tend to appear in greater numbers later in the year when their social structure starts to break down. Wasps can typically form colonies underground, behind fascia boards or in roof spaces. When their nest can be seen it will usually resemble a football sized ball made of a papery material. Wasps can be aggressive and each insect (unlike bees) has the ability to sting many times. The High Wycombe District Council have a pest control service and details of their service can be found at http://www.wycombe.gov.uk/council-services/environment/pest-control.aspx

Flies

These smaller insects are completley harmess. Often seen hovering or probing flowers along side bees

HWBKA bee keepers:

The swarm collection process: If you are a member of the HWBKA and you want a swarm, please inform the Swarm Officer (SO) via either mobile number or by email at . The SO will call you when a swarm becomes available and will assist or arrange assistance for those bee keepers who are unsure of the process of collecting and hiving a swarm.

Donations and your responsibility: The Swarm Officer maintains a list of those wanting a swarm on a ‘first come first served’ basis. This process is free, but HWBKA members should take all reasonable steps to give customers an opportunity to donate to our charity – this provides a valuable income stream to help with bee disease research etc.

The importance of donations and documentation:

• Bee keepers who wish to collect a swarm should take a copy of the explanatory letter and hand this to the member of the public (the owner) from whom they are collecting the swarm. The letter seeks to explain our service and limit HWBKA’s liability by stating that we are assisting the ‘owner’ of the swarm and do not accept responsibility for any damage occurring in the collection process. Finally, it also offers the ‘owner’ an opportunity to make a donation to HWBKA to help defray our costs.

• Bee keepers should also take a copy of our Gift Aid form and hand that together with the letter to the member of the public (the owner) for whom we are providing the service. The owner should be asked to complete the form for our records and if they pay UK tax they should be asked to tick the appropriate box, allowing the HWBKA to claim an additional 28p per £1 collected as a result of our charitable status.

• Donations: all donations, together with the completed Gift Aid form should be returned to the Swarm Officer or direct to our Treasurer, as soon as possible. The Treasurer will send each donor a letter of thanks and a receipt for the donation.