Contact Us Today!
(415) 350-5700

We are located in Santa Rosa.

We serve all of the North Bay including Petaluma, Sebastopol, Sonoma County, Marin County and even the East Bay occasionally. We are a member of the Sonoma County Beekeepers Association, and our commitment is to do what we can, individually, and as a business, to help the plight of the honeybee.

Our heart is in our work

We believe what we are doing is a good thing for the bees and for the environment. If you hire us to take your bees away alive, without killing them, you will participate in that paradigm and know that you are doing your part to help the environment, and especially the honeybee. Some say the honeybee is the environment’s “canary in the coal mine”. Sometimes it’s just impossible to take the bees out alive and in that case we will euthanize them humanely.

“As goes the way of the honeybee, so will man as well.” Said Albert Einstein. So we should all have a selfish interest in creating a friendly environment for these amazing creatures. Protecting the genetic stocks of the wild populations is especially important.

Over half of all our food depends on the pollination of the honey bee, so that’s a great reason by itself to want to help them!

Here’s how we do the removal

We have a unique way of removing the bees using a special Bee box which hooks up to a vacuum. This box/vacuum setup, has a special flow control on it so it doesn’t harm the bees. The center of this box is an actual bee box like the ones you see by the side of the road sometimes. After opening the cavity where the colony is residing, causing as little damage as possible, we start removing the bees with the low flow bee vacuum. We still need to make a hole that is large enough to get at the bees, usually about 2 feet by 2 feet. The bees are initially vacuumed into the lower chamber of the special vacuum box. A bee hive has several compartments. There’s honey that’s in the process of being cured, cured honey, pollen, brood comb, and empty comb. Bees are usually all over all of it.

After getting deeper into the center of the hive, we come upon the brood, or the young larval bees. This is the center of the hive. These combs we carefully take out of the hive and rubber band the honey comb that they are in, into the empty bee frames. When all the larvae or brood has been removed, we stop the vacuum, and take the top off. We place these frames containing the baby bees into the center of the bee box/vacuum. The bees that have been vacuumed already are contained by a removable screen in the lower compartment. After installing the frames of brood, we reassemble the box/vacuum, remove the lower screen and let all the bees that have been vacuumed so far, join the frames containing the brood. This is a very important feature of our method and what sets us apart from most other companies. Most others take the bees away separated from the brood which can lead to the brood dying on the way to their new location from a lack of heat.

After the entire cavity has been cleaned, and sprayed with an organic non-toxic bee repellent-(smells like almonds)-this only lasts a couple of days as a bee repellent, we turn off the vacuum and open the entrance to the box, placing it as close to the original hive as possible. We try to have this coincide with the setting of the sun since all bees rejoin the colony at dark. Most of the time, all of the bees flying around, on the wall, or coming home still from the fields, will enter the box and adopt it as their new home. After all it’s where the baby bees are. We come back after dark, close the small entrance if possible that the bees were using-NOT the hole we used to take the bees out of, and take the bees away, cleaning up everything as best we can before we go. It’s important to know that the former cavity where the bees were will attract other bees in the days to come. It is very important to seal up this area after closing up the wall completely. Using spray foam and/or steel wool is an effective way.

There will also often be some straggler bees that didn’t make it out of a crevice into the box. These can often be seen flying around the former nest for the next few days. This is normal and they cannot start a new hive without the queen and all the rest of the bees.

These bees are then relocated to our bee yard and given back as much of the honey that we took out of their hive as we can. This helps them rebuild their hive and feed the young, and each other. If there is honey left over, we can see that you get some for your home as a tasty souvenir.

This is our method, and we believe, it’s the very best one for the customer and the bee!

Contact Us Today!
(415) 350-5700

Bee Mentoring Program

If you are interested in keeping bees, we can also set up a Bee mentoring program, to help you get started in beekeeping, letting you get your feet wet while learning on your own time. Once the bees have been relocated for 3 weeks in a new location, those very same bees can be brought back and relocated on your property wherever you’d like. This would be for a nominal additional charge and would be determined by distance/time etc.. It’s like being an Organic farmer with ten thousand heads!!

It’s a great way to feel connected to your environment and get amazed and awestruck by the miracle of the bees!!

We are very mindful with what we do and closely work with any contractors you may choose to do repairs. Or we can do most repairs if you would like.

Other Services

Bee Conscious Removal also does yellowjacket and wasp removal. These bees are not in peril and so often are just exterminated.

We often do free swarm removal depending on degree of difficulty and distance to travel. These do not include bees that are already in a structure. Just the ones hanging from a tree or eave. If you’d like to keep these bees and hire us to set up a hive for you, while teaching you about bees at the same time, we’d love to talk with you about that.

Our methods are safe, and non-toxic.

The honey bee appreciates your concern over their fate.

They are truly amazing creatures, run entirely on a society of cooperation. No one bee is in charge, not even the queen. The hive is comprised mostly of females. All of their decisions are based on a consortium of predominantly a female consensus.

If you have any questions about bees in general, are a new bee keeper, have bees in your wall currently, we’d be happy to do our best to answer any questions over the phone that we can.

We generally have to come see the bees that are in a wall or home to give an estimate. We are happy to come out, see what you’ve got going on, and give you a free estimate.

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