See bees? Report them, says Regina beekeeper who lost a 1,000-strong swarm

Mike Walker thought the bees that showed up in a neighbour's Deer Valley yard on Sunday might have belonged to a Regina beekeeper looking for a missing swarm, but the beekeeper says he isn't so sure.

Walker was outside his home when he noticed a swarm of bees hanging out in a tree in the neighbour's yard, while other bees were circling around the community "looking lost," he said.

"It is swarm season," beekeeper Berny Hi said over the phone on Monday, as he prepared to try and wrangle a separate swarm of bees in a nearby low-hanging tree. "There's swarms all over the area, actually."

Hi, a beekeeper of six years, lost a colony of bees from his Regina yard over the weekend. He said Deer Valley would be too far for a virgin queen bee to fly with the small 1,000-odd bee swarm. Deer Valley is 24 kilometres northwest of Regina.

"Though the power of social media, I've been getting a few different requests and messages saying 'I've got some bees here,'" Hi said, adding he received a message about a Yorkton-based swarm. 

Calls have come from Balgonie and Deer Valley, but those situations appeared to have been sorted out by Monday, Hi said. That means his bees are still unaccounted for.

They're honeybees and people shouldn't be too afraid of them if spotted, Hi said. His advice is to call a local beekeeper who will be able to ensure the safety of the bees once winter rolls around.

The Regina Bee Club website has a "report a swarm" option, Hi noted.

Walker said he called a Lumsden beekeeper who then put a box down near the swarm. As of Monday morning, the bee were still in the tree and had not moved to the box, Walker said.

"They're nice, like the bees are nice — they're just bouncing around," Walker said. "There was a bunch of kids outside playing and the bees weren't bothering anyone, so."

Walker isn't sure how many bees are in the swarm, but he was told by the Lumsden beekeeper that "this happens from time to time."