We post our pricing publicly so you don’t have to call to find out. Here’s what live honeybee removal in Central Pennsylvania actually costs, what drives the variation, and what it covers.

This is for live removal from inside a structure — walls, soffits, chimneys, attics. If you have a swarm clustered on a tree or fence, that’s a different situation and it’s free — see swarm collection.

The headline numbers

Job type	Typical price	What it covers
Standard	$650	Accessible from a stool or stepladder — one-story soffits, low porch eaves, ground-level wall openings
Moderate	$750 – $1,000	Ladders or scaffolding required — second-story walls, taller chimneys, deeper masonry row-homes
Complex	$1,200+	Bucket lift required — tall Victorian roofs, hard-access chimneys, multi-story complications

The on-site estimate is free. No deposit, no commitment. The price we quote at the estimate is the price you pay — if the job runs longer than we thought, that’s on us.

What drives the price

Labor time. A typical wall removal is 3–6 hours; bigger or more difficult jobs can run a full day. We’re cutting through siding, drywall, plaster, lath, or occasionally cinder block without hitting pipes or wires, then vacuuming tens of thousands of bees alive, hand-cutting and reframing brood comb, and sealing the cavity.
Access. Stepladder is cheapest. Ladders and scaffolding add setup time and risk. Bucket lift rentals run $300–$500/day before our labor — there’s no way around it if the colony is on a third-story chimney.
Specialized equipment. Purpose-built bee vacuums (Everything Bee Vac, Colorado Bee Vac) capture bees alive at low suction. A pest company “removing” bees with a shop vac and bug spray for $200 is doing a fundamentally different thing.

Other things that bump a job up: masonry (deeper, harder access), colonies that have been there for several years, interior-wall access versus exterior, and multiple colonies on one property.

What’s included

Free on-site estimate before any paid work starts
Locating the colony with thermal imaging
Live extraction of the bees and the queen
Salvaging brood comb (eggs and developing bees) into the transport hive
Sealing the entry point with a long-term solution
Heavy plastic sheeting over the interior cavity until you can repair the wall
Cleanup of bee-related debris
Transport of the colony to one of our apiaries
Insurance coverage if we accidentally damage a pipe or wire

If you give us a food-safe container, we’ll set aside the cleanest honey for you at no extra charge — raw and made literally inside your own walls.

What’s NOT included

Repairs. We’re licensed and insured beekeepers, not contractors. We seal the cavity weatherproof and cover any interior cut with heavy plastic, but the drywall, siding, or roofing repair is a separate job for a handyman or contractor — typically a few hundred dollars depending on what was opened. This is how every legitimate beekeeper-led removal works in Pennsylvania.

Wasps, hornets, or yellow-jackets. We do live honeybee removal only — we don’t kill bees and we don’t spray wasps. If you’re calling about wasps or hornets, you’ll need a licensed exterminator. We’re happy to refer you to one.

Why not just have pest control spray them for $200?

Spraying a wall colony with insecticide kills the bees but leaves 10–60 pounds of honey-loaded comb rotting in the cavity. Here’s what that actually costs:

Cost timeline	Spray-and-leave	Live removal
Day 1	$200	$650
Week 2	Dead bees rotting in the wall	Fresh-sealed cavity, no smell
Month 2	Honey leaking through drywall, $300+ to clean up	All clean
Month 3	Wax moth and ant infestation, pest control round 2 ($400)	All clean
Year 1	Wall stains, possible drywall replacement ($600+)	All clean
Year 2	New swarm moves into the empty cavity (the smell attracts them) — repeat the whole problem	Cavity sealed, no re-entry

Live removal usually ends up cheaper once you account for the cleanup. Pest control companies in the area generally know this — most of them refer honeybee calls to us for exactly that reason.

Getting a quote

Text us a photo and a description: (717) 583-8332.

Helpful info to include:

A photo of the entry point (where bees are flying in and out)
A photo of the surrounding area (one-story or two-story? siding, brick, soffit?)
Roughly how long they’ve been there
Your address

Same-day callback in most cases, free on-site evaluation scheduled separately for the exact price.