See a swarm of bees?  Contact us!

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For those in the city of Richmond and eastern counties near Richmond, Virginia, if you see a swarm of bees (typically a large number of bees hanging on a limb or other area where you have not seen them before), please contact the East Richmond Beekeeper’s Association.  

​What is a swarm? 
When honeybees get too crowded in their hive, sometimes the colony will decide its time to divide itself into new colonies.  Some worker bees will determine to leave the hive with the queen to find a new location.  While they are looking for a new place to live, they will sometimes stop to "discuss" the final location and all stay as close to the queen as possible to keep her safe.  That ball of bees you see is the swarm.  The bees are generally more interested in discussing the new location than in stinging any humans.  Unfortunately, sometimes these “rest stops” are not the best places from our point of view.  Please do NOT kill the bees.  Simply contact us as we are very happy to help relocate them to a safer place.

Swarm Catchers

ERBA members interested in helping capture reported swarms are encouraged to email us to join our swarm chaser distribution list.

When a swarm is reported, we'll forward the information to everyone on the list so chasers can coordinate their response.

Members who successfully capture a swarm are welcome to keep it for their own apiary.  ERBA is also happy to help find a new home by matching the swarm with a member who has requested one.

Swarm Recipients

Want to receive a captured swarm this season? ERBA members can email us to be added to the recipient list for the current year.

Whenever a captured swarm is available, recipients will be selected at random from this list.