> Excuse me is this thread talking about swarm retrevial/gathering or is the
> discussion about bee remeoval?
 
Good point.  I doubt that we can clearly distinguish - at least when
handling the initial call. What we have found from many years of
experience is that it is not always possible to tell over the phone which
you are dealing with.
 
When you get to a 'swarm' call, sometimes there *was* a swarm, but they
have moved into the building on which they were hanging.  Sometimes they
were living there all along, but a hot day made them hang out and look
very much like a swarm.
 
If the bees are on a tree or bush, or fence post, then that is
usually pretty clear if you ask the right questions, but otherwise there
is often an element of doubt.  That doubt includes the question of species
of 'bee'.  Many think that we keep bumblebees and that 10 or so bees
flying around something is a 'swarm'.
 
So far the thread has not really gotten into what it costs us *out of
pocket* to get a swarm.   A swarm call seldom takes less than two hours -
beginning to end. We are a commercial operation; I have to pay from $7.50
to $12/hr to anyone I would send on a critical errand, and pay fuel and
maintenance and oftentimes also sacrifice some important work or have
someone work overtime.
 
A call to a location 10 miles away costs me personally $2 X $10 + 2 X 10
miles X $0.30/ mile = $26.00 minimum - out of my pocket.  About half the
trips can result in nothing much worthwhile being brought back home.
 
What do I get in exchange?
 
*  A warm fuzzy feeling
*  good PR (if all goes right and the preacher doesn't get stung)
*  some bees (anywhere from 0 to 75,000)
    in anywhere from excellent to terrible condition at a time of year
    where they may make a crop - to where I have to feed them to watch
    them die later - in the winter.
*  a distraction from the things that make my living
 
Frankly, I sometimes go myself, just for the diversion, and to meet
people.  Sometimes I can wangle a good bee location out of the trip.
Swarms tend to go where there is good forage.
 
I can't ever recall charging for either a swarm or removal call.  We chalk
it up to our community responsibility, but we do realise that
retreiving swarms cost us money on average, and pass the job off to others
where possible.
 
Allen