Central Iowa Honey Bee Swarm Rescue

If you come across a swarm of honey bees, please contact me as soon as possible. I rescue swarms all over Central Iowa. Feel free to use the form on my contact page, call or text me at (515) 520-2433, or send me an email at: brian@bloodmoneyhoney.com.
If you can, snap a picture of the swarm and send that with your text or email. I try to respond very quickly!

I get this question a lot. Simply put, when a colony of bees grows to a point where it needs more space, a queen and half of the bees will leave their hive to find a new one. They usually settle in a ball on a branch, bush, or fence, really anywhere, and hang out for a day or two. That's how most people encounter a swarm. Swarming is part of a honey bee colony's natural reproductive cycle.

I service pretty much all of Central Iowa, including Boone, Hamilton, Hardin, Jasper, Marshall, Polk, and Story Counties. That includes the towns of Ames, Ankeny, Boone, Des Moines, Gilbert, Huxley, Kelley, Luther, Madrid, Nevada, Roland, Slater, Story City, and other central Iowa locales. I also know a lot of beekeepers, so if I can’t help you I can guide you to someone who can.

If you encounter a swarm of bees, I will attempt to catch it and take the bees to one of my apiaries. What this often looks like is me shaking the ball of bees into a box and carting them away (see video below). Be assured, if you find a swarm and I catch it, those bees will go to a wonderful apiary where they will live, thrive, and survive. All of my apiaries are rich in resources. My bees do very well. You’re also doing me a huge favor as a swarm of bees is like gold for beekeepers.

A swarm of honey bees is an amazing thing, but it can be a scary sight to see. So many bees! But be not afraid! Honey bees are often at their most docile when they swarm. They fill up on honey before they swarm, so they're stuffed with honey and just care about getting to their new home. This is why you can often find pictures or videos of people picking up handfuls of bees from a swarm. The bees don't really care about you, they just want to get to their new home.

Some people think letting a swarm rest on your tree branch or fence post and then letting it go in its way is good idea, but it’s really a terrible idea. It would be like seeing a stray dog and saying “let him go, he’ll find his way.” A swarm is in search of a home, but that home may be in your wall, soffit, roof, pillar, garage, barn, or shed, and then they become a problem - an expensive problem - requiring removal. This is why you should call someone like me if you see a swarm.

Yes! If you have bees in your home or barn or other location, feel free to contact me about that. I perform bee removal services all over central Iowa. This is a time consuming and expensive process and it means opening up the cavity where the bees are living in order to remove them and their comb. For more information please check out my bee removal page.

Yes! Sometimes honey bees swarm to the same location multiple times over many years. If you’ve seen a swarm at your property, please let me know. I can put out what we call a bait hive or swarm trap to try to lure and catch a swarm. Trapping swarms is great for my business! It is also a good method of ensuring that they don’t take up residence in your wall!

Swarming most often occurs in the late Spring and early Summer while resources are plentiful. I find that swarm calls in the late summer or early fall are usually not about swarms but about wasps. Like bees, wasps are natural pollinators and they are beneficial to the environment. If you would like those wasps removed please contact a pest control service.