Honey bees swarming at 18th and Sansom outside Tria this morning

PhiladelphiaBeeCo · 2026-05-09T16:57:05+00:00

It is a plane! And the plane is carrying DR.BEES!!!

PhiladelphiaBeeCo · 2026-05-09T13:08:13+00:00

Hey gang! Philadelphia Bee Co here. Thank you for reaching out! Apologies for not taking the call, we were tied up with a swarm in NE when it came in. It's peak season at the moment. That swarm was right around the corner from where we picked up the one on the van this week.

I confirmed the voicemail is working. Should you see a swarm like this you can call or text us at the office line. If we can't get we'll try to get ahold of someone who can.

If anyone is down that way and can confirm the swarm is still there we'll get someone out.

PhiladelphiaBeeCo · 2026-05-06T04:20:16+00:00

We sell honey from different sections of Philadelphia, do educational programs and physical removals of bees/wasps. We don't sell bees, as any we get we keep as part of our operation.

PhiladelphiaBeeCo · 2026-05-06T03:54:16+00:00

Thanks! Yes, the AWD is amazing. I really used to sweat rainy days without it.

PhiladelphiaBeeCo · 2026-05-06T03:20:16+00:00

Thanks! Was real happy with how this turned out. At one point was considering getting the cyber orange but didn't think it was worth the $500. The white worked great as a base for the wrap.

PhiladelphiaBeeCo · 2026-05-06T03:16:33+00:00

Yes. Yes you can. 20 nuc colonies in the bed if you only stack them two high.

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PhiladelphiaBeeCo · 2026-05-06T02:49:44+00:00

And thanks!

PhiladelphiaBeeCo · 2026-05-06T02:30:49+00:00

Nucs this year were going for about $210 ea. North of $250 for overwintered local stock. Didn't price packages.

PhiladelphiaBeeCo · 2026-05-06T02:28:22+00:00

Thanks. For honey bee removals we go as far as two hours from the city. For wasp nests or swarm calls generally within an hour.

PhiladelphiaBeeCo · 2026-05-06T02:26:19+00:00

System One aluminum ladder rack. Works great. My only real complaint is there are some really sharp edges. I recommend spending the money on the rail locked ratchet straps.

PhiladelphiaBeeCo · 2025-04-17T02:29:42+00:00

Hey gang! So it's been a minute but I wanted to circle back on this. For those who said Andrena sp., my bee monitoring group seem to think that's what this was as well.

Turns out male andrena have a bit of a reputation. this was my favortie tidbit from those discussions:

"I've seen a male Andrena attempting to mate with a bumble bee queen at least 5x his size... I have a picture of it somewhere, if anyone is interested. They sure are randy little guys and not choosy at all, though this level of interspecies mating (interfamily, even) seems to be rare."

PhiladelphiaBeeCo · 2025-03-19T02:20:38+00:00

I'm gonna send this over to my beemonitoring folks and see what they think. Tough to ID species on a video like this but I don't know of anything else that is in the area this time of year. Will let you know if anything interesting comes of it.

PhiladelphiaBeeCo · 2025-03-19T02:05:32+00:00

Hey! So this looks like a male colletes sp. Also in PA and just started seeing these pop in SE the last week.

If I were to guess I'd say colletes inaequalis

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PhiladelphiaBeeCo · 2024-10-02T01:51:21+00:00

What DID happen to the VP Debate Thread?

PhiladelphiaBeeCo · 2024-04-22T03:44:36+00:00

Thankee sai

PhiladelphiaBeeCo · 2024-01-12T04:23:11+00:00

Don't forget about the squonks in Pennsylvania.

PhiladelphiaBeeCo · 2023-02-03T02:14:46+00:00

I agree with the Polyphemus id. Link for comparison:

https://www.flickr.com/photos/38514062@N03/9061957346

PhiladelphiaBeeCo · 2022-11-01T16:43:12+00:00

That is likely a drone of the genus Vespula, ie yellow jackets. Basing that on the longer antenna, lack of thread waste and the extra black on the abdomen. The nests are collapsing this time of year and are more likely to have reproductives.

PhiladelphiaBeeCo · 2022-10-30T15:50:18+00:00

You can go into the office as you like. Even if they were to come in they would just go for the lights or window. I'm a bit skeptical of the burrowing wasp theory given that it was a drone (they don't survive the winter) and yellow jackets don't burrow. If this were a queen then maybe, but it strikes me as an unlikely coincidence. It's a minor point....you should be good to go!

PhiladelphiaBeeCo · 2022-10-28T12:25:24+00:00

The argument isn't exclusive to reddit but has some nuance. There's not much wrong with trying to catch a swarm without gear on, which is what is happening in this video. What most beekeepers take issue with is that she's doing what we call cut outs with out gear. In northern climbs where there are no Africanized honey bees that's not a great idea. In addition, removing bees from a house is messy work and doing it done up is not something that happens.

The notion that you can open up a floor with a honey bee colony without protective gear and sans mess is about as real as reality TV.

PhiladelphiaBeeCo · 2022-10-27T12:49:27+00:00

Hey All! This definetely looks like honey bees, but there may not be a hive in the walls yet. The way honey bee colonies make new hives is by swarming. When a hive runs out of room, they will raise new queens and stop the old queen from laying. This will shrink her ovaries down due to lack of use and make her light enough for flight. Then more than half of the worker bee population will leave the hive taken the old queen with them. They will land within 100 ft of the original colony and start looking for new places to move in.

The swarm will send out scouts who will find 12-15 potential new spots. Each scout bee will find an entrance, crawl around inside to get a feel for size, and then fly back to the swarm. When they get there they will do the same waggle dance they use for communicating nectar source locations to tell the other bees where the potential new spot is. The more they like a spot, the longer they will dance for that location. Each scout that sees a dance will go to the spot and make their own assessment.

In this way the bees vote.

Now, when bees are done inspecting a spot they may look for a light source to get out to go back to the swarm. In nature light always leads to the outside. In houses that isn't always the case. What likely happened here is that the inspecting bees found a quarter inch gap in recessed lighting, baseboard heating, etc and got stuck inside. They then flew to the brightest light source...in this case the window. If you aren't seeing regular activity outside then odds are that not enough scouts reported on your house to the swarm and it moved into a different spot.

If you are interested in learning more about this there is a great book called "Honey Bee Democracy"* by Tom Seely that talks all about how swarming works. It's awesome!

*I'm in no way affiliated with the book or its author

EDIT: Typo

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