For the past twelve years The St. Johns County Beekeepers Association has been providing education and teaching best management practices for local backyard beekeepers. Our mission is to educate and inform local residents of St. Johns County of the many benefits of honey bees, and their importance to our diverse eco-system.
Honey bees have two main goals; to survive the winter uncompromised, and to reproduce at a colony level. Swarming is how they accomplish reproducing. Normally when the honey bee colony has decided that the hive has become too congested they start constructing swarm cells for new queens. Once the queen has laid eggs in these swarm cells, she and half of the adult bees exit the hive ... or swarm.
Not typically. In fact, honey bees are much less defensive in this state than they are around their own hives. They have engorged themselves on honey while scouting for a new home, and are not looking to pick a fight.
Spring is normally swarm season. The honey bee colony is rising in numbers and resources are bountiful, so things get congested fast. Although secondary swarms later in the season are normal, the Spring allows the "swarm" enough time to find a new home, build comb to store resources and space for the queen to lay eggs, in preparation for the coming winter.
Spraying the honey bees is discouraged, as it will obviously kill them. Also, if a beekeeper brings the affected honey bees to their apiary they are exposing their honey bees to whatever you sprayed them with.
Swarms that are in buildings or structures have already (or they are in the process of) making that their new home. Contact a professional beekeeper who is skilled in "cut-outs" and "trap-outs" to help remove the honey bees safely for them and you.
This is discouraged and causes major problems. For starters, if you seal the entrance you will entomb all of the bees, the comb, and their resources. This will cause all of that to rot behind your walls and attract rodents and other insects looking to feed off of the leftovers. In addition, most beekeepers don't want anything to do with removing dead bees.
| Bo Sterk | (904) 377-5167 |
| Molly LaRocca | (352) 281-5461 |
| Keith Cordaro | (904) 810-3233 |
| Walt Wieser | (904) 501-2824 |