Virginia HoneyBee Extricators started in 2025 to give honey bee swarms a second life and help new beekeepers get started without the trial-and-error that costs colonies. We relocate swarms live — no extermination — and run mentorship programs for backyard beekeepers across Greater Rockingham County and the surrounding region.
Tim runs the operation. He's a certified beekeeper through Cornell's Small Farms Program and Michigan State's Heroes to Hives, with apiaries in Harrisonburg, Woodstock, and Purcellville. He's a past president of the Fairfax Beekeepers Association and a Service Disabled Veteran. His honey has won multiple first-place ribbons at the Virginia State Fair, and he's been doing swarm removals and hive work long enough to know the difference between a swarm that just landed and a hive that's been in your wall since last spring.
We handle swarm removals throughout the Valley and Northern Virginia. If the bees just landed and haven't built comb yet, we'll collect them and relocate them to one of our apiaries or pass them to a beekeeper who needs them. We don't do cut-outs — if the bees have been there long enough to build comb inside a structure, that's a different job and we'll assess it case by case.
We also sell package bees and nucs each spring, offer hands-on mentorship for new beekeepers, and sell raw varietal honey from our hives. All hive work is live relocation. We're beekeepers first, and we'd rather see the bees in a managed hive than dead on your porch.