I know that Fall Creek Farms (www.upicktx.com) keeps bees now, they are a local organic farm and a couple weeks ago when we went to pick strawberries they sold us some local honey. We had a discussion about the local farmers losing hives. Maybe they would be interested or be able to suggest someone?

When I was a kid, people would call my dad, he had a smoker and a cardboard box (and a lot of guts!) He would relocate them into the man-made hive boxes in our backyard. I wish I had paid more attention.

You might want to google bee keepers in your area. They might come out and do it for you. I just saw a huge hive in Killeen on the news a couple of weeks ago that had killer bees in it at an abandoned house. It had filled over half of a sliding glass doors that had been boarded up. It was neat to see how the hive was made since you could safely see it from inside the house through the glass. They had to be killed but if it were honey bees they would have relocated them.

Oh you haven't seen Brandon Pollard in his bee suit at some event. He's a crazy bee person that runs the Texas Honeybee Guild with his wife. He will come out and round them up if he can......and find them a new home if they cooperate. They know everyone in the business so he'll try to hook you up with someone that wants them.

Here is a link that might be useful: info

Generally speaking, you will not find a commercial beekeeper willing to come out and remove the bees without a hefty price tag included. The bees are of little value to them. They will need to feed them to get them off to a start, quarantine and medicate before bringing them in the yard, requeen them, not harvest any honey from them this year. And to top off all of that, there is good chance the queen will be lost during the removal and the colony will just turn into an ill tempered hive until they are destroyed.

It is a lot of work to remove bees from a structure. Their entrance/exit may be several feet from the actual hive. It's messy. The structure will be significantly damaged in most cases and will be left that way after removal.

I'm sure you could find a hobbist willing to take this on, but do you really someone disassembling the structure or your home that doesn't do this for a living.

If you want to keep them alive, leave them be where they are at.

If that is not possible call a professional that does it for a living. Get some references from people he has did similiar work for, define weather the bees or bees and honey will be removed. If the bees are simply removed and the honey left behind the comb will melt and leak honey all over and attract robber bees at the least if not a late summer swarm in the wworst case. Finally understand the price quoted is for removal of the bees, NOT to replace anything removed from the structure to gain access to the colony. That's a whole different job bid to be done by a general contractor.

Bottom line you think you have something valuable to give away free which will help someone. You don't. Based on the value of time and money, it is easier for a commercial beekeeper (anyone that makes siginificant income from the apiary) to order a package of certified disease free bees with a fresh queen during the winter, have them delivered to the beekeepers door in the spring and take 20 minutes to dump them in a new hive and harvest honey from them the first year also.

Thank you all.