Bee swarm? Ontario Bee Rescue could take care of that for free

Think of them as the Ghostbusters, but for bees. 

Some people rescue dogs. Some people rescue cats. We rescue bees.- Bruce Richardson

"Not quite that fast. We all have day jobs,"  laughs Bruce Richardson, the man who, along with his wife Joanne Crockett, owns Ontario Bee Rescue, an organization dedicated to the non-lethal removal and protection of wild honey bees. 

"Some people rescue dogs. Some people rescue cats. We rescue bees," he said, noting that spring is his busy season with swarms of bees forming on trees, cars, fences and in some cases, people's homes. 

"Bees naturally swarm in the spring," he said.

'Giant ball of bees'

"You'll see this giant ball of bees. That's a swarm. They're very docile. They're not aggressive, but people are still scared of them." 

Richardson suggests homeowners shouldn't use pesticides on the swarms and should instead consult Ontario Bee Rescue's list of 65 qualified beekeepers in communities across Ontario. 

"You don't have to call the exterminator, because they call us," he said. "We care about the bees and we go get the bees and put them in a hive and put them in an apiary where they can grow." 

And in many cases Richardson said he'll do it for free. 

"If it's an outdoor swarm and it's say, less than 15 feet in the air, then yeah, I'll do it for free," he said. "If it's an extraction, that's a little bit different. When we're pulling bees out of somebody's wall, we actually have to cut out the nest and then they're trying to kill you."

'It helps us as beekeepers'

"That would be a charge for removal, but the swarms are absolutely free," he said. "It helps us as beekeepers." 

How it helps is it gives beekeepers fresh queens in order to make up for the losses their colonies may have incurred over a harsh winter, which can sometimes kill over 50 per cent of a colony. 

"Some years are better than others, but this year most of the people we talk to say they lost half their bees," he said.  

How a hobby blossomed into a passion

Bruce Richardson became a beekeeper by accident. 

"We had a gentlemen come out to our farm in London and ask to keep bees out there," he said. "We didn't really know the first thing about them." 

That gradually changed over the course of four years. The man, whose name is Richard Durnan took Richardson under his wing and taught him something new about the insects each time he came out to the farm on London's eastern rim, owned by Richardson and Crockett.

Then Durnan passed away, leaving his bees on the couple's farm. 

At first they weren't sure what to do, according to Crockett. 

"We were like 'what are we going to do?'" she said, noting it was Bruce who watched "all the videos he could" in trying to learn the art of beekeeping. 

She said it wasn't until they had their first taste of the honey that everything changed. 

"I totally remember that we took some of the comb with the honey out and put it in the atrium with sun and let some of the honey out and said 'Oh, this is just amazing' and it exploded," she said. 

Spreading the buzz on bees

Crockett not only accompanies her husband on bee rescue missions, she also films them, putting the videos on the Ontario Bee Rescue website.

They also travel across the country, trying to educate people about why bees are important, according to Richardson.

"We have a 26-foot travel trailer painted like a giant honeybee and we drive that across Canada every summer. We visit all the bee yards and we talk to the press about bees and how people can help and what they can do and not be scared of bees." 

"We want to help people and we want to protect the bees," he said.