SwarmCatcher UK Reviews 3

Reply from SwarmCatcher UK

Apr 7, 2024

I’m not sure where this has come from as our last communication with this lady was 5 months ago?
I’m guessing the bees are still flying and that the colony did not die off overwinter.

I am sorry this lady feels the way she does, as I spent considerable time attempting to explain:-
- our service
- the nature of the work
- the problems that may occur as a result of poisoning a bee colony
- the importance of poisoning in accordance to the law
- the importance of accurate information relating to the property and the location of the bees in order that I could provide an accurate quote:
I even had our most experienced bee remover talk to her so that we could get a better understanding of what was going on.

I provided her with a verbal estimate of our cost not including the costs for access (scaffolding), including the fact that if we could tie in with other work local to her, the cost could be reduced further.

I gave her a verbal estimate as opposed to a written quote because I was not in receipt of all the vital information we required to make a quote, but she wanted an indication of pricing.
At this point the the lady indicated that this was too costly and that her beekeeper friend was going to assist her in removing the bees.
There was little point in spending more time on providing a detailed written quote.

It should be noted that we don’t require anyone to draw on their walls; but it helps if a photo can be marked up to show the bee entrance.

Of the 17 photos we have I believe 4 were useful to the guys when they were discussing it. When requesting images we are quite specific about what we need and that they need to be provided to us in the original size to allow us to look at them. We usually require 4 or 5 photos per colony.

This type of work can be complex and requires good information regarding the position of the bees and the construction of the property in order that we can assess how best to carry out the removal with minimum impact upon the property and to keep costs to a minimum.

It’s probable that this removal could be carried out from either within the property or externally, if externally it was probably going to require scaffolding and if internally would require sections of plasterboard to be removed.

It was not clear to us as to whether the bees were in the roof cavity or the wall cavity or possibly both.

I was aware that she was trying to keep costs down but gave her pricing for the most extreme scenario. I would expect this removal to take a long day, but one never knows, it may be more possibly less.

I appreciate that some may find it difficult to provide all the information we require, or know how to submit it, usually I am able to overcome these difficulties.

In this instance a site visit with a thermal camera would have assisted, unfortunately we need to charge for this - usually at a discounted rate.

It should be noted she has not spent a penny with SwarmCatcher, and that SwarmCatcher has spent a lot of time dealing with her issue.

In the meantime I and the SwarmCatcher team wish her and her beekeeper friend all the best in their bee removal endeavour.