If the colony lives in a tree, a forgotten hive box, a compost bin or a trailer anywhere in Broward County, it can be lifted out alive and driven to a beekeeper. Workers, brood and the queen ride together in vented boxes to an apiary that takes them in. Nothing is sprayed. Bees inside a wall or roof call for live bee removal with repairs instead.
Signs It Is a Relocation Job
- Comb in plain view: on a branch, in a hollow trunk, or under a lid.
- Bees inside something portable, like an abandoned hive box, compost tumbler or old grill.
- A trailer, boat or machine you need back has bees in it.
- Steady traffic for over a week, so not a resting swarm.
Which Jobs Count as Relocation
This service covers colonies outside a building's walls, or anywhere the owner wants bees moved rather than simply gone: a hollow trunk, a hive box left when a house sold, a compost bin, a trailer that sat out a rainy season.
Trunks and palms have their own tree and palm page; barns and tool sheds fall under shed and stable bee removal. A clump of bees with no comb is a swarm, a lighter job: see swarm removal.
Keeping the Queen and Brood Together
A colony is more than its fliers: a laying queen, combs of eggs and larvae, and nurse bees tending them. Leave the brood and it rots in place; miss the queen and the workers lose weeks raising a new one.
Brood comb comes out in whole slabs, banded into empty frames so it hangs as built. Once the queen is boxed the workers follow her scent, and where possible we close up at dusk with the field bees home.
Bees living in something you need back?
A photo texted to (954) 429-5133 tells us if it can move whole.
Ventilated Boxes, Cool Hours
A sealed box of bees in a South Florida truck bed can cook the colony, so ours have screened vents, ride strapped and shaded, and keep frames upright because warm, honey-heavy comb sags. Feral colonies here can carry Africanized genes; neighbors are warned and pets kept in until the box is shut.
Why Moving Beats Spraying
Poison kills the bees and leaves the rest. In our heat, small hive beetle larvae tunnel through abandoned honey until it ferments and smells of rotting oranges, and robber bees can carry tainted honey home to other hives. Relocation removes bees, comb and honey together, then the cavity is cleaned and sealed so the next swarm's scouts find nothing.
What's Included and What Changes the Price
Part of every job
- Colony, entrance and temper checked before anything is cut
- Thermal scan showing how far comb runs in a trunk or trailer wall
- Brood banded into frames so the nursery travels with the queen
- Screened, vented boxes strapped down for the drive
- Honey and wax hauled off, cavity cleaned, opening sealed
What moves the price
- Height: a box on the ground versus comb high in a trunk
- Colony age, and how much comb the bees have built
- A defensive colony, which needs more gear and a wider safety zone
- Calendar: hauling a colony out as a weekend or after-dark emergency adds to the bill compared with a planned weekday
A hive box, cooler or bin on the ground, with comb reachable without cutting, usually lands in our $300 to $400 range for ground-level work. Prices climb into the thousands once the crew has to reach comb far up a trunk, peel out years of buildup, or open a trailer wall and patch it afterward. Text one clear shot of the box or trunk to (954) 429-5133 and a price range comes back before anyone drives out; our pricing page covers the rest.
Compare job types on the pricing page.
How a Relocation Unfolds
- Send a photoA picture of the bees and their home usually shows whether this is relocation or a wall job, and gets you a price range.
- Frame the brood, find the queenAfter judging the colony's temper, the crew bands brood comb into frames, sets the queen in with it and brushes the rest of the workers in after her.
- Close up and cleanWith foragers home, the box is screened shut, and leftover wax and honey come out so nothing draws robbers or beetles to the old spot.
- Drive to the beekeeperThe colony rides vented and shaded to a beekeeper's apiary, where a defensive one can be requeened with gentler European stock.
Relocation Calls Around Broward
- Southwest Ranches
Acre-plus lots there hold barns, paddocks and parked trailers. Town rules generally keep out streetlights, so an evening close-up means bringing our own lights.
- Davie
Horseback riding is common in Davie. Tack rooms, hay storage and stock trailers give colonies dry spaces that sit unopened.
- Plantation
Plantation's first homes, built in 1947, came on single-acre lots with a 20-tree orchard each. Aging fruit trunks on big lots can hollow out and hold a colony.
Questions About Honey Bee Relocation
Can you just move the hive to the back of my yard?
No. Field bees memorize where home is, so a hive shifted across the lot sends them back to the empty spot; beekeepers move a colony a few feet or several miles. A feral colony of unknown temper is also a poor fit for a family yard.
We bought a house with an old hive box out back. Can I keep the bees?
Florida requires every beekeeper with honey bee colonies to register with the state Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services and renew yearly. An unmanaged box usually holds a colony that moved in on its own, temper unknown. Start fresh with a managed hive and let us relocate this one.
Will the bees survive the move?
Their odds are best when queen and brood travel together and the box stays cool, hence the vents and the shade. Should she die during the cutout, the saved brood still gives the workers young larvae to rear a replacement.
A storm dropped a tree and there are bees in the trunk. Now what?
Keep people, pets and mowers back; a colony that just lost its roof is agitated. Call before the tree crew cuts anything, and we take the comb and bees out of the downed wood so it can be hauled. Trees still standing fall under tree bee removal.
Let the colony leave in one piece.
Before anyone sprays or saws, call (954) 429-5133. Quoting a tree, bin or hive-box move costs you nothing, and our promise to respond inside 24 hours applies to outdoor colonies too.