Honey bee removal Berkshire

Our live honey bee removal & relocation service is available for properties in Berkshire and the surrounding Home Counties

SwarmCatcher is a small independently run family business whose live honey bee removal & relocation service is used by property owners and businesses from all over England, Scotland & Wales.

While we don’t have a bee apiary in Berkshire itself we regularly carry out honey bee removals through out the year in or near to all of the towns in Berkshire, including Reading, Windsor, Maidenhead, Ascot, Cookham, Crowthorne, Wokingham, Newbury & Sandhurst.

SwarmCatcher is not a franchise business or a call centre, it is a family run environmentally responsible business that specialises in one thing, the removal of honey bees from buildings and places they should not be.

We are not a general pest control company dabbling in honey bee removals, we are a business whose sole purpose is to carry out live honey bee removals, relocating the honey bee colonies to our apiaries, so that they can flourish in a controlled manner.

By reaching out to us and filling in our contact form you will benefit from a free assessment on how best to have your honey bee colony removed. We don’t usually need to carry out an onsite survey, saving you that expense, providing you can give us some basic information and some decent photos.

Specialist Honey bee removal – Berkshire (Reading, Bracknell, Slough, Crowthorne, Newbury & Sandhurst)

If you have had a honey bee swarm arrive at your property and its taken up residence leaving you with honey bees in a roof or honey bees in a chimney, or honey bees in a wall cavity then you will struggle to find better than SwarmCatcher.
SwarmCatcher are the honey bee removal Berkshire specialists, regularly carrying out work within Berkshire (Reading, Windsor, Maidenhead, Ascot, Cookham, Crowthorne, Wokingham, Newbury & Sandhurst) and the surrounding Home Counties. We offer free specialist advice to anyone unfortunate enough to have a honey bee swarm arrive & take up residence within their property

Why choose Swarmcatcher for your Honey Bee Removal Berkshire (Reading, Windsor, Maidenhead, Ascot, Cookham, Crowthorne, Wokingham, Newbury & Sandhurst)

SwarmCatcher specialise in the live removal & relocation of honey bees, we are not a franchise, or a pest control company that have no real experience in removing honey bees from building structures.
Over the many years of carrying out live honey bee removal in Berkshire (Reading, Windsor, Maidenhead, Ascot, Cookham, Crowthorne, Wokingham, Newbury & Sandhurst) and the Home Counties we have developed unique techniques for removing honey bees from walls, chimneys and roofs from homes & businesses all over Berkshire and the other Home Counties.

Honey Bee Removal near you in Berkshire

It does not matter where in Berkshire you are located, we have you covered.
Our highly experienced honey bee removal specialists are available to carry out a honey bee removal in or near to all the towns of Berkshire, including Ascot, Bracknell, Crowthorne, Earley, Eton, Hungerford, Maidenhead, Newbury, Reading, Sandhurst, Slough, Thatcham, Windsor, Wokingham & Woodley.

We don’t need a local office as obviously all the honey bee removal work is carried out at your property. On occasion we will require the assistance of specialist trades, but this will be highlighted during the assessment of the needs for the live honey bee removal.

Whether your property is located closer to London, or further away in the North Wessex Downs SwarmCatcher have all the experience needed to carry out a safe, environmentally friendly honey bee removal extraction & relocation of all parts of the honey bee nest, including all the wax comb, honey and all the honey bees. This is completed without the use of any insecticide or harm to the honey bee colony.

If your property is located closer to London in Slough, Windsor, Datchet, Ascot, Sunningdale, Sunninghill or Bracknell SwarmCatcher covers these towns. During the removal & relocation, we ensure that the colony is kept safe reducing the levels of stress on the colony to a minimum with well thought out and practiced techniques that only those with an understanding of honey bees could develop and properly understand.
Often we see others attempting bee removals that don’t fully understand the complexity of a live bee removal or understand the nature & behaviour of the bees, this unfortunately causes stress to the honey bee colony but worse can cause Health & Safety issues for you & other people within the vicinity of the bee removal.

If you are lucky enough to own a property located on or near the Thames such as at, Old Windsor, Datchet, Eton, Windsor, Bray, Maidenhead, Hurley, Remenham, Wargrave, Sonning, Caversham, Reading, or Pangbourne, its OK we won’t hold it against you. I’m just truly envious, as a youngster I was lucky enough to spend a lot of time on the Thames between Old Windsor & Henley, and truly loved it, missing it more and more as I think about while writing this page.

For those in or near to the market towns of Hungerford, Lambourne, Newbury or Wokingham that have a honey bee colony in a wall or a bees nest in a chimney or honey bees in a roof, we can assist. Not only do we carry out the removal but we also protect the space against a future bee swarm from reoccupying it.

When using SwarmCatcher you can be assured that your property will not suffer from any long-term damage as a result of inappropriate methods and tools being used to gain access to the colony. This is especially important when carrying out a removal for honey bees in a chimney or honey bees in a wall. When working on old chimneys and walls it can be vitally important that the correct tools and methods are used, otherwise the work can lead to needing a complete rebuild, something we have never found to be necessary.

Honey bee removal in Berkshire service

The live removal is done without causing harm to the bee colony or the building and upon completion the bees are relocated to a safe place. We will then reinstate the building fabric so that you are safe in the knowledge that the bees won’t come back over a period of time.
Our honey bee removal service for Berkshire, London & Home Counties can be offered as a complete package, that includes the cost of access, the removal & relocation of the honey bees, any reinstatement works, or we can offer these as separate individual services, dependent upon your requirements.

Honey bees in chimney – Berkshire (Ascot, Bracknell, Crowthorne, Earley, Eton, Hungerford, Maidenhead, Newbury, Reading, Sandhurst, Slough, Thatcham, Windsor, Wokingham & Woodley)

If the bees are in a chimney in Berkshire it fairly much goes without saying that there will be a need for scaffold to the top of the chimney stack.
We can source & provide a scaffold company to erect any scaffold prior to our arrival or you can use your preferred local Berkshire based scaffolder to avoid our inevitable markup on the scaffolding cost.
If you are having a problem deciding on a scaffolder we can often provide details of a good reasonably priced local Berkshire scaffolder, this way you get the reassurance of knowing the scaffolder can provide what we need, and do so even with the honey bees flying about, but are not charged a markup for scaffold costs by us.
If you use your own local Berkshire scaffolder we can talk to the scaffolder on your behalf so that there is no misunderstanding about our requirements. This is important because as bee removal specialists we have specific requirements for scaffolding to allow us to carry out the removal of bees from the chimney to be done so safely, properly and quickly. If the scaffolding is not right it will add time to the work, and may even delay the work being carried out, and our needs are not necessarily known by the scaffolder without us talking to them.

Please note that we have never needed to dismantle a chimney, it’s totally unnecessary normally. I emphasis this because too often we hear of people being told that the chimney needs rebuilding because of a honey bee infestation. This is completely false.
When SwarmCatcher carry out a honey bee removal from a chimney we may need to remove a couple of bricks (sometimes not). These bricks are easily reinstated on completion of the bee removal.
So be very wary of anyone suggesting the chimney needs rebuilding.

More often than not, when removing honey bees from a chimney we will need to replace or repair the flaunching (cement work on top of the chimney holding the chimney pots in place). Dependent upon your preference we can do this or you can have your preferred Berkshire based builder do it once we have removed the bee nest from the chimney.
If we are doing it, we will try to fit the work in at the end of the day, but often it can mean having to return the following day.

We can carry out any repointing work for you, this adds time to the hours required so we would generally advise you to employ a local Berkshire builder for any pointing work, especially if its lime mortar, as they will probably be more competitively priced than us, and can better give the time that is needed.

For more information about honey bees in a chimney in Berkshire we suggest looking at our home page and following the links through to honey bees in chimney

Protecting against honey bees in a chimney in Berkshire

Proofing against a reinfestation of honey bees in a chimney in Berkshire is generally straightforward and not expensive to do.
Providing a chimney flue is not in use there are a couple of products that can be easily purchased at not a great cost, if a chimney pot is of an unusual design then we can be creative using off the shelf materials such as lead and stainless steel mesh to create the required proofing, whilst eliminating damp as a result of rain intrusion and by allowing the chimney flue to breathe.

Honey bees in roof – Berkshire

Honey bees find space to occupy in all sorts of parts of a house roof but very rarely do they occupy the main roof void. Often the spots they decide to inhabit, need to be accessed by some form of scaffold, be it mobile or fixed.
We can advise on whether fixed scaffolding or mobile scaffolding is going to be necessary to remove the honey bees in a roof in Berkshire. This is most easily covered after we have received the basic information & photos that we need by filling in our contact form and following the directions, to make a free assessment (for no charge).
If scaffolding is required we can often direct you in the right direction to find a suitable local Berkshire scaffolder that does not mind working with the bees and that has historically provided good scaffold allowing us the access we need. We can also liaise with the scaffolder on your behalf explaining our requirements. Or if you prefer we can organise it all but would add a markup to the scaffold costs.

More often than not we will reinstate the roof, so that anyone unaware would not know we had been there. However on depending on the roof type and the complexity we may suggest that bringing in a local Berkshire based roofer would be beneficial. After all, roofers are specialists and some roofing work needs to be carried out by specialists.
Even if its not needed, often the work will be carried out more quickly and less expensively by them, but we advise on this, from the start.

For more information about honey bees in a roof in Berkshire we suggest looking at our home page and following the links through to honey bees in roof and then follow through to the relevant pages.

Protecting against honey bees in a roof in Berkshire

Proofing against bees in a roof can often be a complicated and difficult subject, and one that needs to be discussed after we have had all the information that we need to assess your particular scenario.
To proof against honey bees in a roof in Berkshire we use a lot of techniques unique to us that we have developed and enhanced over time to specifically prevent the honey bees from reoccupying a space. This is best discussed onsite once the bees have been removed.
The methods used utilise inexpensive easily available materials, methods and basic commonsense – but they are concepts & techniques that we have come up with to solve problems without causing other problems such as water condensation and damp issues.

Honey bees in wall – Berkshire

Depending where the honey bees are in the wall cavity there may or may not be need for a fixed scaffold. Sometimes we can use a mobile tower, and sometimes no extra external access is needed, other times a fixed scaffold maybe required. If a fixed scaffold is required we can arrange for this for you, or we can talk to your local Berkshire based scaffolder on your behalf letting them know our requirements, but keeping you in full control of the finances with the scaffolder invoicing you directly to avoid any unnecessary markup from us.

When we carry out a honey bee removal from a brick wall in Berkshire we keep our impact on the property to a minimum, we will limit the number of bricks removed to a minimum. Unfortunately this makes for uninspiring photos as we don’t remove large areas of brickwork, so exposing large sections of bee comb when we carry out a live honey bee removal from a wall cavity in Berkshire.
This is because we are more interested in doing a good job for you than we are of creating dramatic news worthy images. When removing honey bees in a wall we are often able to do it by removing just 6 or 7 bricks (possibly less, depending how long the bees have been in situ, sometimes more).
We take the bricks out whole using a special tool that helps to reduce the level of dust involved and saves the brick from being damaged so that they can be put back in and repointed at the end of the removal of the honey bee colony in the wall.

For more information about honey bees in a wall in Berkshire we suggest looking at our home page and following the links through to honey bees in walls or better still fill in our contact form and find out what else we need from you to assist you better.

Internal or external bee removal from wall in Berkshire

Not all honey bee nests in walls in Berkshire are removed by removing bricks from the outside, sometimes they are best done from within the property, again we can discuss this better when we have the details & photos needed to be able to assess the honey bee removal requirements.

Protecting against honey bees in a wall in Berkshire

There is nothing complicated about preventing honey bees from returning to a wall, providing its of solid construction, ie bricks and mortar and not designed with easy access to the cavity in mind.
The majority of walls are cavity walls with an external face using bricks. More often than not the bees will gain access to the wall cavity as a result of

• material degradation (weak weathered mortar),
• a hole that has been purposefully created but is no longer required and has not been filled (such as where an old overflow pipe may have run)
• a hole specifically left open during construction, that should really have been insect proofed (a weep hole, or air brick)
• a join between two different materials (i.e. soffit and brick wall)

None of these are difficult to proof against.

However not all walls are the same, so some walls require a lot more attention to detail, we can discuss this further when we have your specific details and photos. We use various techniques that we have developed over time that not only deal with proofing against the honey bees in walls in Berkshire but also don’t cause future problems as a result of condensation and damp that can be caused by more commonly used methods by those with little understanding of building techniques.

Honey bee swarm removal – Berkshire

For those of you looking at our page because you have had a honey bee swarm turnup on site, which is currently clustered in a bush, tree or some other spot then you need to be getting in touch with a local bee keeping association or club and politely asking if they have someone available to come and collect it.

Swarm collection is not our speciality, it is usually a straight forward task that does not require a great amount of knowledge so can be carried out by a far greater number of people. That’s not to say that these swarm collectors are not knowledgeable, its that they don’t have the breadth of knowledge or experience that we as specialist honey bee removers have.

The quicker the collection can be carried out the better as it gives the swarm less time to decide to pickup and occupy yours or someone else’s property.
Unfortunately once they do occupy a property be it the chimney, roof or a wall everything gets a lot more expensive.

A quick search of the internet using the term “Bee Swarm Collection” followed by your town or village name should come up with a local swarm collector that can help you.

Please find below a list of sites with contact details that we identified when writing this page that say they carry out swarm collection within the Berkshire area.

Slough, Windsor & Maidenhead : Slough, Windsor & Maidenhead Beekeepers’ Society
They cover the following areas
SL1, SL2 & SL3 – Slough, Langley, Datchet
SL4 – Windsor, Eton, Dorney, Old Windsor
​SL5 – Ascot, Sunninghill, Sunningdale
SL6 – Maidenhead, Cookham, Holyport, Taplow
TW18, TW19 & TW20 – Wraysbury, Egham, Staines

Reading & surrounding area – Reading and District Beekeepers’ Association
They collect swarms in the following postcode areas
RG4 – North of Reading, including Caversham, Sonning Common, Sonning, Chalkhouse Green, Tokers Green & Mapledurham, & Playhatch
RG5 – East of Reading, including: Woodley
RG6 – SE of Reading, including: Earley & Whitley
RG7 – to the South of Reading, including: Burghfield Common, Spencers Wood, Theale, Mortimer, and Silchester
RG8 – to the North West of Reading, including: Goring, Woodcote, Upper Basildon, Pangbourne, and Purley on Thames
RG9 – to the North of Reading, including: Henley-on-Thames, Lower Shiplake, Binfield Heath, Stoke Row, Fawley, and Turville Heath
RG30 – to the west of Reading, including: Southcote, Burghfield, Churchend, Horncastle, Pingewood and Trash Green
RG31 – to the west of Reading, including: Tilehurst, Calcot, Little Heath, Church End, Sulham and Calcot Row

Wokingham – Wokingham & District Beekeepers Association
They have a PDF with details of swarm collectors for Wokingham, Bracknell, Ascot, Crowthorne, Hurst, Twyford, Wargrave & surrounding areas, and also suggest the use of the BBKA interactive swarm collectors map, which can be found at

Honey Bees in Chimney

We attend more chimney honey bee removals than we do of any other type of honey bee removal or cutout. We don’t need to dismantle the chimney, we rarely remove more than 4 individual bricks. When honey bees occupy a chimney space it is usually one of three scenarios or a combination of them.

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Honey Bees in Roof

Generally speaking honey bees don’t colonise large roof spaces, when they are flying in beneath tiles they more often than not are colonising a cavity wall or an old dismantled chimney stack that is hidden beneath the tiles. But they love dormer windows and flat roofs

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Honey Bees in Wall

We remove bees from walls and we can do it without taking them down or knocking huge holes into them. We remove the bees the wax & the honey. Rarely do we need to remove more than 8 bricks, which we remove whole so they go back as they were.

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Very Happy with the service from Swarmcatcher

I contacted Swarmcatcher to enquire about removing the bees that had set up home in a disused chimney of my elderly parent’s home in Northamptonshire. There was a large hive in the chimney, the bees had been there 5 years. I received expert advice from the Swarmcatcher team, who gave me clear and detailed information regarding the removal process and associated costs. They subsequently carried out the removal work to their quoted cost and schedule. The bees are now safely rehomed and my parent’s house no longer ‘hums’ all summer. I would thoroughly recommend Swarmcatcher.

Theresa Roper

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Looking for Honey bee removal specialists in Berkshire – Call SwarmCatcher

If you are looking for

• honey bees in a chimney in Berkshire to be removed
• honey bees in a wall in Berkshire to be removed
• honey bees in a roof in Berkshire to be removed
• honey bees in some other place in Berkshire to be removed

Look no further, SwarmCatcher are the UK specialists for honey bee removals.