Category: Bee Removal

Here’s to a happy & healthy 2019!

We want to thank all our customers and our staff that make every day fun and exciting. We couldn’t do it without you all!

We had some company shenanigans over the break celebrating the holidays!  Little Giant Beekeepers would like you to meet some of our staff who have made our parties and work life fun over the last few of years!

Jefferson (LEFT) – Lead bee technician and our resident comedian (as shown by his jaunty Christmas suit!). He might be at your house to help you with bees and we guarantee he will keep you entertained!  Interesting fact: He is from Brazil.

Louise Wright (RIGHT) – Meet Little Giant Beekeepers owner, Louise. She got into beekeeping when she was looking for a natural alternative to help her allergies. She and her husband Harold soon became fascinated with all the neat things bees and beekeeping could offer and BOOM – a business was born!

Gail (LEFT) – If you call on a Sunday you will get Gail on the phone to answer your bee questions!
Melanie (RIGHT) – Our back up bee phone Gal!

Manoel (LEFT) – Here he is enjoying some Brazilian food with a friend.  Manoel is another one of our friendly bee technicians who also happens to hail from Brazil!

Sandor (CENTER) – Here is Sandor, his lovely wife (LEFT) and Louise (RIGHT).  Sandor is one of our beehive removal experts and has been working with us for over 35 years. He is also a retired US Army veteran, and we are grateful for his service.

Missy (LEFT), Jefferson (CENTER), anonymous photobomber and let’s not forget Esther (RIGHT), our fearless behind the scenes bee leader!!  She keeps the team together and in line!

KYLE and his wife – These friendly faces are another one of our helpful hive removal technicians.  Even with six kids they still manage to get together matching sweaters for our annual Christmas sweater party!

Everyone frantically playing the Saran Wrap game!  Esther wrapped lots of goodies and gift cards in Saran Wrap. You must rip through the saran ball before the next person lands on a double in dice. When they land on a double you pass the ball around. It’s a blast, especially when you get something good – gift cards galore!

MISSY – Call Little Giant Beekeepers to schedule an appointment or ask questions and you are likely to get our bee girl extraordinaire Missy! She can answer all your questions, with a smile and a lovely southern accent.

Missy (RIGHT), Jefferson (LEFT) and Mary (on Facetime)!  Mary was out of town and Facetime-d in for our annual holiday party. We are sooooo tech savvy!

MARY – Meet Mary, our honeybee “aficionado!”  She truly is an encyclopedia of flying insect knowledge and much more. Rarely can you stump her when it comes to questions about bees. Call her and give her a try!  She has worked at Little Giant Beekeepers for many years and is a big part of the team.

HAPPY NEW YEAR FROM LITTLE GIANT BEEKEEPERS!!

Our last blog post talked about the spring phenomenon of honeybee swarms. Well, a swarm goes hand-in-hand with another spring honeybee activity, scouting.

What is a Scouting Honeybee?

Scout bees are a smaller group of bees that hang together and “scout” for a new place for the swarm to move into. You can tell a scout bee because it looks like they are checking out a broad area, flying around, or scouting. People often see scouting bees flying in small groups around the outside of their house. These bees are scouting a place for their swarm to move into. So…beware if you see this.

Often, the scouting bees make their way into a home from the outside. We get many distressed phone calls about bees scouting a house in spring.  Clients also may call when they find an alarmingly large number of dead bees inside their home. Usually, this means the bees have died while scouting. They get inside a house through a small hole outside and then can’t find their way back out. Eventually, they die of exhaustion.

A swarm on your property might just decide to move on to the next location but if you see scout bees around your house you should be on the lookout. They could decide your home is a nice place to make their next home. This is never a good thing for a homeowner.

How do I know if I have a scout or a swarm?

Scout bees will be scanning a large area. If you see single bees going in and out a hole in a structure in a single line you might already have a swarm that has moved in. It is a best at this point to call a profession bee removal specialist who can help you decipher if you just have scout bees or a hive already established.

If you are concerned you have a swarm or scout bees call Little Giant Beekeepers at 972-980-0923 and see what the next step is to protect your home. We can safely remove a swarm for a fee and relocate them to an apiary.

Spring is in the air! Warmer temperatures bring everyone out to enjoy the great outdoors, including honeybees. When Spring rolls around, Mary, Missy and Gail, our amazing bee phone call specialists, start to get some panicky calls from Dallas /Fort Worth customers about honeybee swarms.

Q: “Why is there a football size clump of bees hanging from my tree?”
A (Mary): “Sounds like you have a honeybee swarm, no need to panic.”

Q: “Please help me! There is a swarm of bees down the block what do I do?”
A (Missy): “Take a deep breath you’ve called the right place.”

Q: “I see a ton of bees flying around outside my house. I’m scared.”
A (Gail): “Don’t worry. We can help!”

Spring gives rise to honeybee swarms. A swarm sounds scary, but it is just nature’s way of helping the bee population survive. All winter, bees have been holed up in their current hive living off the honey they have produced. When the weather begins to warm the colony starts to expand.

What is a Honeybee Swarm?

The queen bee is busy laying eggs this time of year, including worker and drone eggs. Soon the hive grows too big for only one queen bee and another queen is created. The second queen bee arrives when the hive has expanded so much that the workers can no longer smell the first queen bee’s pheromones she emits. Basically, if they can’t smell the first queen bee, they don’t know she’s alive so they create a new queen bee by feeding the future queen bee royal jelly. There is only one queen bee per hive so now a new colony needs to be formed. Usually the original queen bee will fly off with about half the colony and go find a new place to live. This is a swarm.

Little Giant Beekeepers gets many call about this phenomenon this time of year. People see a clump of bees hanging on a tree, branch or sometimes a car and the sight can be a bit unnerving. A swarm stops wherever the queen decides to rest. The group waits here while scouting bees go find a new place to make a permanent home. If you see a swarm in your yard or area you will want to keep an eye out to make sure the scouting bees don’t make your home, their home!

If you have a swarm around your house call Little Giant Beekeepers and we can talk about the next steps in protecting your home from a swarm moving in. We can come safely remove the swarm for a fee and relocate them to an apiary so you don’t have to worry about them moving into your structure…never fun for a homeowner! Call 972-980-0923.

A live honeybee hive removal is when a bee removal company removes the bee colony and hive alive and relocates the bees to an apiary. Our company, Little Giant Beekeepers & Bee Removal Specialists, performs live honey bee hive removals all over the Dallas-Fort Worth area.

A swarm of honeybees can take up residence in some unexpected places, like your house! Honeybees particularly like older homes without wall insulation and often build behind an eave, siding, or wall. They can move into a structure through tiny cracks, as little as 5/16 of an inch! Once a swarm moves in, they begin to create a hive and honeycombs quickly. A queen can lay 1,500-2,000 eggs a day. An established hive can contain an average of 60,000 honey bees. A honeybee hive can grow rather large in a short time if not removed properly by a bee removal professional, like Little Giant Beekeepers and Bee Removal Specialists.

Once honeybees are established in a home it takes several steps to properly perform a removal. The first step of a live honeybee hive removal is finding the area where the bees are located. Once our technician locates the area of activity he will open the cavity in which the bees are located. It is hard to know the size of the colony until the space they are occupying is open.

Our highly trained bee technician will then remove the bees with a bee vacuum. This is a piece of equipment created to safely remove the bees from the space. The bees are then relocated to a container for safe keeping. Our bee technician will remove the hive and honeycombs from the area and clean out space with soap and water followed by bleach. If the area is not properly cleaned out, you might get bees in the same spot again because they can smell the pheromones left from previous bees and return. Needless to say, the cleaning step is important! After cleaning, we hard pack the area with insulation, another bee deterrent. We receive many calls from people who have had bees removed by other companies who did not properly clean the old hive area. Guess what that means? Bees again in the same spot!

Our bee removal experts have a background in bee removal as well as carpentry. At this point, the carpentry skills come into play. We replace all existing materials, for example, wood or siding, and leave the structure exterior exactly as it was before the bees were removed. We make sure all holes are completely sealed so no bees can get in again.

After the job is complete we will safely relocate the bees to a local apiary, a safe place where bees can go about being bees and making lots of honey.

There are some situations which make a live removal extremely difficult or in some cases too costly to remove and repair.  For example, if a bee colony occupies a space enclosed by cement, stone, or brick, a live removal might not be possible without the assistance of a brick or stone mason. No matter what, Little Giant Beekeepers & Bee Removal specialists can help you determine the right treatment for your specific needs and budget.

These are the basics of a Little Giant Beekeepers and Bee Removal Specialists live honeybee hive removal. We warranty all of our work, providing a five-year warranty for all removals performed by our company. Please feel free to call us at 972-980-0923 for a free live hive removal estimate.