Bee Removal

The State of Florida authorizes Florida Registered Beekeepers
to charge to relocate honeybees.
Aside from Licensed Pest Control Operators, only Florida Registered Beekeepers are
authorized by the State of Florida to charge to relocate bees.

Important - Florida Registered Beekeepers need and expect payment for their services. Rescuing and relocating bees is risky, serious work requiring training, equipment, and experience. Transportation, specialized clothing, specialized capture equipment, hive equipment to house the bees, and materials to set up the new location all cost money. No beekeeper is getting rich rescuing bees.

It can go like this - a beekeeper spends a long day removing bees from a location, places the bees and their comb in a hive box, and moves those bees to a location that had to be prepared to receive them. A day later, the beekeeper goes to check on the bees only to find that the rescued bees have left their new home to set out on their own! An experienced beekeeper has described rescuing bees as, "It is like trying to make a feral cat into a house cat...it is a great idea and well-intended, but... it doesn't always work.” The bees will probably be all right and you got the bees out of your wall, but the beekeeper has lost out.

Paying the beekeeper partially offsets these inevitable losses.

If the colony stays, beekeepers are required by state law to purchase a new queen for all captured colonies in order to minimize the likelihood of transmitting Africanized Bee genes to the kept bee population.

There is no such thing as free bees.

All bee cutouts, swarm collections, and trap-out arrangements

are strictly between you and the Florida Registered Beekeeper.

The Suncoast Beekeepers Association is not party to any arrangements

between you and the Florida Registered Beekeeper.

The Suncoast Beekeepers Association merely provides contact information

for Florida Registered Beekeepers who are SBA members as a courtesy.

Florida Registered Beekeepers - SBA Members

Ashley Williams - 941-685-1814
Brad Stiles - 941-312-3124

James Cutway - 941-746-1597

Kevin Lausman - 941-720-3619

Kyle Wooster - 941-914-1953