If you’d like to request a swarm of bees, please read these notes on swarm availability then complete the form below. This will tell our team of volunteer collectors who wants swarms and let them contact with you when a swarm becomes available.
You might want to check our items for sale page – members sometimes might have spare colonies or nucs for sale; these are likely to be at a higher price than the swarm fee (see below), but might provide you with bees sooner.
We usually give priority to new members once ready to look after bees, but all Registered and Partner members, including those on our training course, may apply.
When you get your swarm, pay the association’s agreed swarm fee of £20 directly to the collector, this provides a donation to the association and it also helps to cover the collector’s out of pocket expenses. Please note that all our collectors are unpaid volunteers who give their valuable time and expertise to provide a service to the public, and bees to beekeepers.
If you have asked for a swarm and get bees by another means, please let us know.
Please be aware that:
- a swarm may result from a cast (secondary swarm) and have a virgin queen which might take some weeks to start laying eggs;
- the swarm may not survive;
- it might abscond;
- there is no guarantee of the swarm’s quality; and
- you must accept the above when you request a swarm.
If after receiving a swarm, you’d like another, please re-apply. To make this whole process manageable, and fair to all, we won’t accept multiple concurrent applications. Also, if you are not a current, registered or partner member of the association, please don’t apply.
New/inexperienced beekeepers: we have a duty of care to all swarm recipients (and their family and neighbours) so we won’t provide swarms to anyone unless we consider them to be confident and ready to look after their new bees safely (or can call on support from a mentor or other competent beekeeper).
A lesson from the school of hard knocks: Our occasional experience has been that when members have obtained bees (from third parties) before achieving a basic level of competence (and perhaps not attended training sessions, or ignored our advice), that they’ve generated a serious (and sometimes dangerous) nuisance to neighbours/others, and significant inconvenience to the beekeepers who’ve rescued them. This is why it’s so important for beginners to attend as many of the lessons and practical training sessions as possible. The more you attend, the more competent you’ll become and the sooner we can be confident that you and others will be safe to receive bees.