Increase in amateur beekeeping leads to more calls for wild swarms

Swarms of bees plaguing Metro Vancouver Well-meaning amateur beekeepers are setting up hives in their backyards, but the insects keep escaping in swarms.

An uptick in amateur beekeeping in Metro Vancouver has led to another surge: panicked calls to remove swarms of bees.

Bill Picha, who offers free bee collection in the GVRD through this company Bill’z Bees, says his phone has been buzzing from nervous homeowners that have found themselves a bee problem on their hands.

It’s a sign of how popular beekeeping has become. A worldwide honeybee shortage has prompted many area residents to put a beehive in their backyard: The Vancouver police now keep a colony on their roof, and St. Helen’s Anglican Church has even blessed its bees.

But Picha says amateur beekeepers don’t always understand proper care, and often try to grow their hives too quickly. The result, he says, is that the queen decides to leave the overcrowded colony and takes half of the colony with her.

“It’s just seven days a week, answer the phone, go get a swarm,” he said.

“If it’s dangling from a tree I come right away. I drop what I’m doing and come get them.”

While the bee expert normally deals with around 100 swarms a year, he figures at this rate he’ll be well over 150 for 2016.

He removes the bees by hand, and says that he never gets stung. He says the secret for dealing with bees is being calm.

“It’s a big misconception that bees are aggressive,” he said.

Picha says he has no problem finding homes for the bees he boxes up and removes from properties.

“Because so many beekeepers want to expand there's never a shortage of demand for new colonies,” he said.

With a report from CTV Vancouver’s Shannon Paterson