Honeybee Removal Services
From Ottumwa to Kalona and Oskaloosa to Mt Pleasant, and anywhere in between or nearby.
We are fully equipped to do removals. From a simple removal from a shed rafter or from the wall of your house.
Cut outs, trap outs, and swarm recovery.
Simple removals I can often do for free.
Removals that will be difficult will be a little more expensive than free, but my prices are seldom beat!
I often encounter folks who are upset that I am charging them AND getting free bees. So I want to start first with value to clear this up a little.
A package of bees = 80 - 90 Dollars (2013/2014)
An established nuc = 120 to 180 Dollars
An established production Colony = 300 Dollars
So where do feral bees from a cut out or trap out land value wise?
I value a colony of feral bees at 50 Dollars.
Why 50.00? Why not more? Why not the same as a package at least?
A package of bees comes to me, I do not have to go to it.
A package of bees has bees of KNOWN genetics. A feral colony does not.
A Package of bees was treated for disease and pests, a feral colony was not.
A Package of bees was bred for production and gentleness. A feral colony
could be meaner than a wet cat!
A Package of bees has a new, young, proven queen, a feral colony's queen is of
unknown age, but is at least a full year old. Most beekeepers re queen their
hives every other year.
A Package of bees has bees that have been chosen from NON swarmy
genetics. A feral colony may attempt to swarm several times through spring
and summer.
Feral bees are a risk. They can bring problems to my apiary in the form of diseases and pests. All of which must be treated for. Treatments can be in excess of 100 dollars per hive on their own. A new hive from Brushy Mountain, to put the bees in costs 250 Dollars. These bees will need to be fed to build up, and or to prepare for winter. If they die during winter, I have lost all of my time and effort.
So I have fuel, Treatment, Feed and Labor involved.
Without counting labor or the equipment I have to do removals;
50 Dollars for the bees.
250 for a complete hive with frames.
100 for treatments
20 for feeding
20 for fuel
= 440 Dollars... for a 300 dollar production Hive... IF, they survive the winter.
But wait! They are not a production hive, until they survive the winter, and build up in the spring again. In the spring I have to treat them again, and feed them to get them built up early..
100 for treatments
20 for feeding
= 560 Dollars for a 300 dollar production hive.. IF they survived the winter. IF they did not, I have the equipment left over, but the rest of the time and expense is lost.
After that comes my Labor, and the 10000 dollars plus in truck trailer, generator, bee suits, bee vac, saws, ladders, scaffolding, etc, etc, etc..
So as you can see, buying a package, a nuc, or a full production hive would be much easier and safer.
Labor.
Depending on the location the bees chose, it could be as fast and simple removal that takes 4 hours, or it could be a real booger to get to, and take 14 hours.
So NO bees are free, and I will not make a killing on 200 pounds of honey from this hive over the course of the next three years. Average yield is 40 to 60 lbs of honey per hive per year, in good years. This hive will not produce honey this year, so it will be a full year before I see any return. Bulk honey price is around $2.30, so if they DO make 60 pounds of honey next year, I may get $138.00 for selling it... AFTER I extract it from the comb using a 1200 dollar extractor, a 400 dollar de capping tank etc, etc...
So I just ask for you not to be angry when I want to charge you 200 dollars for giving me free bees.
PLEASE call other removers and get prices from them. Then call me and get my price. Don't tell me the prices in advance, let me give you a quote. I think you will be surprised at the difference.
Your other option is to find someone just starting out that REALLY wants those free bees. It IS a possibility!
There are two types of people who remove honey bees. The Pros who charge a LOT of money, and the beginners who often charge nothing, thinking they are getting free bees.
The pro's lose work because they are so expensive, and the beginners quickly give up when they realize how much work and time is required.
I fit right between the two. I am not a beginner, but I am also not a Pro, at least in the aspect of charging a lot of money.
I am a beekeeper, and I am a capable carpenter. I have built several houses, and flipped many houses. Give me a call and let me give you an estimate. If the job is easy enough, the removal could be free.
Swarms
If you have a swarm gathering on your property give me a call as soon as possible. I will be glad to come retrieve them. Sometimes a swarm will hang out two or three days, Sometimes its just a matter of an hour before they decide to move into one of your buildings, your gas grill or other place that will be more difficult to extract them from.
Cut out
What to expect?
First, let me state that if a removal will require DE-construction, removal of siding, walls, floors Ceilings etc, the home owner will need to coordinate with a contractor to repair the location to its original condition.
In the event that I can remove a soffit, extract the bees, and replace the soffit, no contractor will be required.
I can, and will replace basic boards, floors, etc.. If the bees are in your wall, I will find the studs, and cut the section out centered on those studs, so when the removal is complete I can replace the piece cut out, the rest will be up to the contractor or homeowner. I will not leave your wall open to the elements without good reason.
“Why don’t you do the finish work?”
I can, but the price will be much greater, and I am not the BEST finish carpenter. I did do everything in the second house I built, from wiring and plumbing to shingles. I did all of the finish work, but I no longer have the tools. I was never good at sheet rock repair. I can make it look good, but I will use 5 gallons of sheetrock mud to do a 1 gallon job. The other 4 gallons will be dust floating about your house when I get it sanded.
In the event interior walls, floors ceilings etc need to be opened, then hiring a finish contractor to repair those areas back to original will be much cheaper and faster than if I do it.
Repairing a garage, barn, or shed is a different story. In most cases the boards removed can simply be replaced.
Bees in out buildings, old equipment or cars are generally less difficult to remove, so any cost will be reflected by that ease.
I will inspect the location, determine what needs to be done, and discuss the means of doing it with the owner. We will come to a complete understanding of what will happen and how it will happen. We will agree on a price if there is one. I will have the owner sign a removal agreement, and then I can begin work.
Trap outs
In the event the location is inaccessible, for example, in a tree the owner does not want cut down, or in a house the owner does not want cut open, I can begin a trap out.
A trap out will reduce or eliminate damage to the structure.
But it will take eight weeks or more to complete from start to finish.
A trap out is often as expensive as a cut out because of the time and travel involved. The advantage is that no contractor will be required to repair damages. The disadvantage is that I will need to travel back and forth a lot, use resources from my hives, and it will take a considerable amount of time.
Once the colony is trapped out, they need to be allowed to rob out the original hive.
The importance of allowing the bees to rob out the remaining honey is that if it is left in the comb with no bees to keep it dehydrated, it will ferment, and begin to run down the wall, or onto the ceiling etc. This is a nasty mess to clean up and or repair. It will last for quite a long time as more cells ferment and or burst. To make this situation worse, the smell of the honey fermenting will draw rats, mice and other vermin, as well as insects, Wax moths and hive beetles. At this point it would have been better to allow the bees to remain where they were.
The leaking honey correlates directly to extermination with added nastiness. If the hive is sprayed, or bug bombed. It will kill a LOT of bees. Though usually not all of them. For the sake of argument lets say you DO kill all of them. A strong hive can have as many as 60,000 bees in it. Having 60,000 bees rotting in your wall or ceiling is not going to smell pleasant. You also have to consider the eggs, larvae and brood in the combs. They will die also. They will all rot, mildew and mold, AND the honey will begin to ferment and drip. Sounds ugly doesn't it?
Trust me, it is!
DO NOT attempt to exterminate honey bees!
I will go one step further here. Spraying wasp and hornet spray into an opening will kill a lot of bees, but unless that spray can reach every comb, and every bee in every crack and crevice, you will not kill them all, and they will persist despite the insecticide. This will also have the effect of making them VERY angry. I have seen bees go three city blocks to sting people when they were angry. You can't outrun them, and they will remain angry for several days if not weeks because of the pesticide smell in their hive. Please don't do it!
If bees I am to remove have been sprayed, the price automatically jumps $50.00 because these bees are worthless to me. I will not even attempt to save them. Pesticides permeate the comb it comes in contact with. It can make a queen sterile if it doesn't kill her, and my equipment will need to be very carefully cleaned and sterilized before I can use it again.
Pesticide smell will remain in the comb for months, and the residue will remain in the wax forever. I will still do the cut out, but I will be pretty unhappy about it, and that will be reflected in the price. The bees will be angry, and my equipment contaminated. The pesticide smell will get into my bee suits, gloves, Bee Vac and everything I touch the contaminated comb and honey with.
If I am told they were not sprayed, and the first comb I cut open reeks of pesticides, I will pack up and leave.
You are much better off to tell me ahead of time!
Spraying seldom works, as mentioned above. They will stop using the contaminated comb and build deeper into the wall or eave. You don't do either of us any favors by trying to kill them with spray. Honey that is only lightly contaminated may be transferred to the clean comb, or robbed out by your neighbors bees, causing far reaching problems.
Prime months for removal.
Prime months for removal are April through Early July. Removals done after mid/late July are unlikely to build up strong enough to survive the winter. I will do removals any time of the year, but the later in the season the bees are removed, the more likely they will die. At the very least, bees removed in late July will take considerable care and feeding if they are to build up enough bees, and supplies to survive until the following spring.
Bees do not Hibernate, they cluster. They vibrate their wing muscles (Thoracic muscles) to produce heat, keeping the center of the cluster as warm as 93 degrees. This requires enough bees to produce enough heat, and it requires enough honey to feed them through the winter months. Too little of either and they will perish. Mites and diseases also weaken them, so they have to be treated. The bees that are treated benefit some, but it is the bees that are raised by the bees that are raised by the treated bees that benefit the most. You want the strongest, and youngest bees you can get going into winter. The later they are cut out and hived, the less time the beekeeper has to bring the next, stronger generations of bees out, and the lesser the chance of wintering successfully.
Removing bees after the prime months will cost more, because my struggle to keep them alive will be greater, or may not be possible at all if late in the season.
So, how much does it cost?
I wish I could SET prices and tell you over the phone it will be X amount to do the job, but I can't tell you until I see the job. A quick easy job may be free. Setting up the scaffolding, pulling a ceiling panel in the shed, removing the bees and comb, replacing the panel and removing the bees from the property could take four hours and cost as little as $100.00.
If I have to remove siding, cut out walls and work from a ladder it could take six to eight hours and cost $400.00. If I have to rent a bucket truck and remove bees from the peak of an insulated tin work shop it could take two long days and might cost $600.00
I will travel to the location and appraise the job for free within 30 (Give or take a few) miles of home.
Remember, I do removal. I can handle simple repairs after the removal, but most finish work will need to be handled by a contractor.
I work hard at being fair.
I received a call to take bees from a garage wall. The owner informed me that the last two people she called wanted to charge her $1200.00 and $1400.00 respectively. I charged $150.00 (50 of it being the bees) I removed the inside wall, which was a simple piece of plywood held in place by sheet rock screws. I Vac'd the bees, cut out the combs, found the queen, scraped the walls clean, stapled screen over the entrance and put the plywood back on the wall in about 4 hours. I was happy, and the owner was so happy she gave me a $50.00 bonus. $150.00 translates to 37.50 an hour. That was $20.00 an hour for me, the rest was for the equipment use and travel. I don't need to make a profit of over a thousand dollars per job, I just need to be able to pay myself, my assistant, maintain my gear, and cover the fuel. The bonus is having a new hive to start. In this situation, those free bees became much closer to being "free".
Getting an estimate within 30 miles is free. If you live further away we may still be able to work something out. Send me an Email and we will see if we can make an arrangement we are both happy with. ( [email protected] )
Scott
We are fully equipped to do removals. From a simple removal from a shed rafter or from the wall of your house.
Cut outs, trap outs, and swarm recovery.
Simple removals I can often do for free.
Removals that will be difficult will be a little more expensive than free, but my prices are seldom beat!
I often encounter folks who are upset that I am charging them AND getting free bees. So I want to start first with value to clear this up a little.
A package of bees = 80 - 90 Dollars (2013/2014)
An established nuc = 120 to 180 Dollars
An established production Colony = 300 Dollars
So where do feral bees from a cut out or trap out land value wise?
I value a colony of feral bees at 50 Dollars.
Why 50.00? Why not more? Why not the same as a package at least?
A package of bees comes to me, I do not have to go to it.
A package of bees has bees of KNOWN genetics. A feral colony does not.
A Package of bees was treated for disease and pests, a feral colony was not.
A Package of bees was bred for production and gentleness. A feral colony
could be meaner than a wet cat!
A Package of bees has a new, young, proven queen, a feral colony's queen is of
unknown age, but is at least a full year old. Most beekeepers re queen their
hives every other year.
A Package of bees has bees that have been chosen from NON swarmy
genetics. A feral colony may attempt to swarm several times through spring
and summer.
Feral bees are a risk. They can bring problems to my apiary in the form of diseases and pests. All of which must be treated for. Treatments can be in excess of 100 dollars per hive on their own. A new hive from Brushy Mountain, to put the bees in costs 250 Dollars. These bees will need to be fed to build up, and or to prepare for winter. If they die during winter, I have lost all of my time and effort.
So I have fuel, Treatment, Feed and Labor involved.
Without counting labor or the equipment I have to do removals;
50 Dollars for the bees.
250 for a complete hive with frames.
100 for treatments
20 for feeding
20 for fuel
= 440 Dollars... for a 300 dollar production Hive... IF, they survive the winter.
But wait! They are not a production hive, until they survive the winter, and build up in the spring again. In the spring I have to treat them again, and feed them to get them built up early..
100 for treatments
20 for feeding
= 560 Dollars for a 300 dollar production hive.. IF they survived the winter. IF they did not, I have the equipment left over, but the rest of the time and expense is lost.
After that comes my Labor, and the 10000 dollars plus in truck trailer, generator, bee suits, bee vac, saws, ladders, scaffolding, etc, etc, etc..
So as you can see, buying a package, a nuc, or a full production hive would be much easier and safer.
Labor.
Depending on the location the bees chose, it could be as fast and simple removal that takes 4 hours, or it could be a real booger to get to, and take 14 hours.
So NO bees are free, and I will not make a killing on 200 pounds of honey from this hive over the course of the next three years. Average yield is 40 to 60 lbs of honey per hive per year, in good years. This hive will not produce honey this year, so it will be a full year before I see any return. Bulk honey price is around $2.30, so if they DO make 60 pounds of honey next year, I may get $138.00 for selling it... AFTER I extract it from the comb using a 1200 dollar extractor, a 400 dollar de capping tank etc, etc...
So I just ask for you not to be angry when I want to charge you 200 dollars for giving me free bees.
PLEASE call other removers and get prices from them. Then call me and get my price. Don't tell me the prices in advance, let me give you a quote. I think you will be surprised at the difference.
Your other option is to find someone just starting out that REALLY wants those free bees. It IS a possibility!
There are two types of people who remove honey bees. The Pros who charge a LOT of money, and the beginners who often charge nothing, thinking they are getting free bees.
The pro's lose work because they are so expensive, and the beginners quickly give up when they realize how much work and time is required.
I fit right between the two. I am not a beginner, but I am also not a Pro, at least in the aspect of charging a lot of money.
I am a beekeeper, and I am a capable carpenter. I have built several houses, and flipped many houses. Give me a call and let me give you an estimate. If the job is easy enough, the removal could be free.
Swarms
If you have a swarm gathering on your property give me a call as soon as possible. I will be glad to come retrieve them. Sometimes a swarm will hang out two or three days, Sometimes its just a matter of an hour before they decide to move into one of your buildings, your gas grill or other place that will be more difficult to extract them from.
Cut out
What to expect?
First, let me state that if a removal will require DE-construction, removal of siding, walls, floors Ceilings etc, the home owner will need to coordinate with a contractor to repair the location to its original condition.
In the event that I can remove a soffit, extract the bees, and replace the soffit, no contractor will be required.
I can, and will replace basic boards, floors, etc.. If the bees are in your wall, I will find the studs, and cut the section out centered on those studs, so when the removal is complete I can replace the piece cut out, the rest will be up to the contractor or homeowner. I will not leave your wall open to the elements without good reason.
“Why don’t you do the finish work?”
I can, but the price will be much greater, and I am not the BEST finish carpenter. I did do everything in the second house I built, from wiring and plumbing to shingles. I did all of the finish work, but I no longer have the tools. I was never good at sheet rock repair. I can make it look good, but I will use 5 gallons of sheetrock mud to do a 1 gallon job. The other 4 gallons will be dust floating about your house when I get it sanded.
In the event interior walls, floors ceilings etc need to be opened, then hiring a finish contractor to repair those areas back to original will be much cheaper and faster than if I do it.
Repairing a garage, barn, or shed is a different story. In most cases the boards removed can simply be replaced.
Bees in out buildings, old equipment or cars are generally less difficult to remove, so any cost will be reflected by that ease.
I will inspect the location, determine what needs to be done, and discuss the means of doing it with the owner. We will come to a complete understanding of what will happen and how it will happen. We will agree on a price if there is one. I will have the owner sign a removal agreement, and then I can begin work.
Trap outs
In the event the location is inaccessible, for example, in a tree the owner does not want cut down, or in a house the owner does not want cut open, I can begin a trap out.
A trap out will reduce or eliminate damage to the structure.
But it will take eight weeks or more to complete from start to finish.
A trap out is often as expensive as a cut out because of the time and travel involved. The advantage is that no contractor will be required to repair damages. The disadvantage is that I will need to travel back and forth a lot, use resources from my hives, and it will take a considerable amount of time.
Once the colony is trapped out, they need to be allowed to rob out the original hive.
The importance of allowing the bees to rob out the remaining honey is that if it is left in the comb with no bees to keep it dehydrated, it will ferment, and begin to run down the wall, or onto the ceiling etc. This is a nasty mess to clean up and or repair. It will last for quite a long time as more cells ferment and or burst. To make this situation worse, the smell of the honey fermenting will draw rats, mice and other vermin, as well as insects, Wax moths and hive beetles. At this point it would have been better to allow the bees to remain where they were.
The leaking honey correlates directly to extermination with added nastiness. If the hive is sprayed, or bug bombed. It will kill a LOT of bees. Though usually not all of them. For the sake of argument lets say you DO kill all of them. A strong hive can have as many as 60,000 bees in it. Having 60,000 bees rotting in your wall or ceiling is not going to smell pleasant. You also have to consider the eggs, larvae and brood in the combs. They will die also. They will all rot, mildew and mold, AND the honey will begin to ferment and drip. Sounds ugly doesn't it?
Trust me, it is!
DO NOT attempt to exterminate honey bees!
I will go one step further here. Spraying wasp and hornet spray into an opening will kill a lot of bees, but unless that spray can reach every comb, and every bee in every crack and crevice, you will not kill them all, and they will persist despite the insecticide. This will also have the effect of making them VERY angry. I have seen bees go three city blocks to sting people when they were angry. You can't outrun them, and they will remain angry for several days if not weeks because of the pesticide smell in their hive. Please don't do it!
If bees I am to remove have been sprayed, the price automatically jumps $50.00 because these bees are worthless to me. I will not even attempt to save them. Pesticides permeate the comb it comes in contact with. It can make a queen sterile if it doesn't kill her, and my equipment will need to be very carefully cleaned and sterilized before I can use it again.
Pesticide smell will remain in the comb for months, and the residue will remain in the wax forever. I will still do the cut out, but I will be pretty unhappy about it, and that will be reflected in the price. The bees will be angry, and my equipment contaminated. The pesticide smell will get into my bee suits, gloves, Bee Vac and everything I touch the contaminated comb and honey with.
If I am told they were not sprayed, and the first comb I cut open reeks of pesticides, I will pack up and leave.
You are much better off to tell me ahead of time!
Spraying seldom works, as mentioned above. They will stop using the contaminated comb and build deeper into the wall or eave. You don't do either of us any favors by trying to kill them with spray. Honey that is only lightly contaminated may be transferred to the clean comb, or robbed out by your neighbors bees, causing far reaching problems.
Prime months for removal.
Prime months for removal are April through Early July. Removals done after mid/late July are unlikely to build up strong enough to survive the winter. I will do removals any time of the year, but the later in the season the bees are removed, the more likely they will die. At the very least, bees removed in late July will take considerable care and feeding if they are to build up enough bees, and supplies to survive until the following spring.
Bees do not Hibernate, they cluster. They vibrate their wing muscles (Thoracic muscles) to produce heat, keeping the center of the cluster as warm as 93 degrees. This requires enough bees to produce enough heat, and it requires enough honey to feed them through the winter months. Too little of either and they will perish. Mites and diseases also weaken them, so they have to be treated. The bees that are treated benefit some, but it is the bees that are raised by the bees that are raised by the treated bees that benefit the most. You want the strongest, and youngest bees you can get going into winter. The later they are cut out and hived, the less time the beekeeper has to bring the next, stronger generations of bees out, and the lesser the chance of wintering successfully.
Removing bees after the prime months will cost more, because my struggle to keep them alive will be greater, or may not be possible at all if late in the season.
So, how much does it cost?
I wish I could SET prices and tell you over the phone it will be X amount to do the job, but I can't tell you until I see the job. A quick easy job may be free. Setting up the scaffolding, pulling a ceiling panel in the shed, removing the bees and comb, replacing the panel and removing the bees from the property could take four hours and cost as little as $100.00.
If I have to remove siding, cut out walls and work from a ladder it could take six to eight hours and cost $400.00. If I have to rent a bucket truck and remove bees from the peak of an insulated tin work shop it could take two long days and might cost $600.00
I will travel to the location and appraise the job for free within 30 (Give or take a few) miles of home.
Remember, I do removal. I can handle simple repairs after the removal, but most finish work will need to be handled by a contractor.
I work hard at being fair.
I received a call to take bees from a garage wall. The owner informed me that the last two people she called wanted to charge her $1200.00 and $1400.00 respectively. I charged $150.00 (50 of it being the bees) I removed the inside wall, which was a simple piece of plywood held in place by sheet rock screws. I Vac'd the bees, cut out the combs, found the queen, scraped the walls clean, stapled screen over the entrance and put the plywood back on the wall in about 4 hours. I was happy, and the owner was so happy she gave me a $50.00 bonus. $150.00 translates to 37.50 an hour. That was $20.00 an hour for me, the rest was for the equipment use and travel. I don't need to make a profit of over a thousand dollars per job, I just need to be able to pay myself, my assistant, maintain my gear, and cover the fuel. The bonus is having a new hive to start. In this situation, those free bees became much closer to being "free".
Getting an estimate within 30 miles is free. If you live further away we may still be able to work something out. Send me an Email and we will see if we can make an arrangement we are both happy with. ( [email protected] )
Scott
Scott;
Just a thank you note.
I will be bluntly Honest, the difference between your price and the other folks I got quotes from made me very skeptical about your service. In this day and age your LUCKY if you get what you pay for. To be blunt again, I couldn't afford the other guys, so you were my only option, and I want to be perfectly clear, that this turned out to be a blessing.
You did a professional job, all the while answering the hail of questions from myself and my son. Seeing the queen was exciting, eating FRESH honey comb was a new experience we both very much enjoyed. My son is still talking about the removal a week later.
Thank you for doing a very professional job, AND taking the time to educate us. You have restored my faith in American Value.
Stephen G
Scott,
Please find enclosed a bonus for your efforts. I would have given it to you in person, but you snuck away when the job was done.
I want to thank you for doing the cone and hive removal. My house was not cut up and there were no repairs. You spent a lot of time running over here every few days. We have had no bees coming and going from our porch since you removed your equipment. It is nice to be able to go out on the porch again without fear, and nicer that you managed it without taking a saw to the house. Accept the check without guilt, the price you asked was not enough for the work and time spent.
I do expect a jar of honey to be forthcoming!
Thank you very sincerely!
Marg F