Services
Bee Thinking offers a number of honey bee-related services to the Portland Metropolitan Area, including:
Classes
No classes are currently scheduled, but please stay tuned for upcoming classes throughout the summer and winter of 2010.
Swarm Removal
We offer swarm removal from your trees, mailboxes, cars, fences or other places those daunting clumps of bees decide to rest.
A swarm of honey bees generally land on tree branches 5-20 feet off the ground and form clumps ranging from baseball to football sizes. They usually arrive in the early afternoon and can stay from an hour to a few days. They should not be considered dangerous, and please do not spray any insecticides, water or bother the swarm in any way. Call us and we’ll remove them and give the bees a good home pollinating our city!
Hive Removal
Hive removal from structures, walls, chimneys, trees or any other cavity in which honey bees may inhabit.
Honey bees commonly take up residence in cavities in areas inhabited by humans, a startling and potentially dangerous find for the homeowner! They tend to prefer entrances 10 or more feet above ground, and cavities that are dry and protected from the wind – thus making walls the ideal home in their mind!
If you find what you think may be a honey bee colony on your property, please give us a call and we’ll first discuss it with you over the phone to verify that it is an actual honey bee colony (Many of the calls we receive are actually yellow jackets, wasps, hornets or bumble bees.). Once we verify that it is a honey bee colony we will visit the site, determine the feasibility of removing the colony and provide you with an estimate.
Many beekeepers use a method called a “cut out” to remove the bees. This, simply put, means that they will cut a hole in the wall, remove the bees and leave you with a steep bill both for the bee removal and to get your wall repaired! We use a more gentle method known as a “trap out” that removes the bees gradually over a one month period. After one month we close up the entrance and take the bees to another part of the city to live out their days happily pollinating!
Hive Management
Specializing in foundationless (Horizontal top bar, Warre and foundationless Langstroth hives), we provide assistance to beekeepers new and old who are just getting started with Top Bar, Warre or other foundationless hives where the local bee associations and much of the local bee community is unwilling. If you need assistance with your hive, give us a call or shoot us an e-mail and we’ll discuss the options.