Why you should always call a friendly beekeeper FIRST!

In my quest to help save the honey bees, with every question I get I always try to use it was a learning experience. I always tell people that the bees are our friends and here to help us in countless ways, so we should always do whatever we can to help them in return. That includes saving them when they swarm or move where they're not wanted.

Last year I had a couple of calls from people who had bees in their homes and wanted to get rid of them. They didn't want to kill them, only move them. And when I told them that I knew a few cut out beekeepers who would come and remove the bees for a small charge or no charge, but they (the homeowners) would be responsible for any repairs, the next question was always, "But what if I just stop up the hole so they can't get in or out? Can't I just kill them and be rid of them that way?"

That's when I seize the moment to tell people that's not the way to handle it, that if the bees die, they are going to have a huge mess from the aftermath. I always tell them that as long as the bees are alive, the nest is air conditioned. But when they die, all that oozing honey, the melted wax and smell has to go somewhere...not to mention the ants, roaches and mice who will come around to dine on the free eats. Most elect to allow a cut out beekeeper to save them the hassle and take care of the issue.

Here's a video of someone who decided to take it upon themselves to kill a colony in an old apartment building. The video, from beekeeper JPtheBeeMan on Youtube, shows several cans of wasp and hornet killer, a can of spray foam, and thousands of dead bees in the apartment. Did they get rid of the bees? No. The owner ended up calling a beekeeper anyway, but by that time it was too late. The bees were contaminated from all those pesticides and I understand the colony ended up dying. If the owner had just called the beekeeper to begin with, she could have saved herself a lot of time and the bees would have lived and found a new home.

I've already posted this on my Facebook and will use it in the future when people ask if they could just try to get rid of the bees themselves. This should be a training video for beekeepers to use when trying to educate the public about why they should not try to "do it yourself" when it comes to removing squatter honey bees!