For beekeepers
How swarm calls actually reach beekeepers
Every beekeeper who collects swarms is on the end of some system for hearing about them. Most of those systems are a published phone list. Here is how the alternatives differ, and what to check before you sign up for any of them.
The default, almost everywhere
The published swarm list
This is still how most of the country does it. A county or state association, or sometimes the state department of agriculture, keeps a roster of beekeepers willing to collect swarms, and the public reads it and calls somebody. New York's Department of Agriculture and Markets publishes a swarm catcher list as a table of names, counties, and phone numbers. Delaware's Department of Agriculture publishes its removal list as a PDF, refreshed once a year. The Ohio State Beekeepers Association runs a county map, and you need to be a current member to appear on it.
It works, it costs nothing to run, and it keeps the club in charge of its own members. Three things about it are worth naming honestly:
- Your phone number is doing the filtering. Once it is published, everything reaches it. Beekeepers on swarm lists routinely describe fielding call after call about bumblebee nests and wasps, and some come off the lists rather than keep answering them.
- The list goes stale between edits. Getting added, changed, or removed usually means emailing a person who edits a web page. An annually published PDF is accurate on the day it goes up.
- Calls are not evenly shared. Whoever sits near the top, or ranks well in search, or is most visible locally, takes a disproportionate share — a pattern beekeepers discuss openly.
Fast, free, unstructured
The group chat
Alongside the official list there is nearly always something informal: a club Facebook group, a group text, a phone tree, an email blast. In parts of Germany, clubs run swarm alerts over a WhatsApp broadcast that members join with a QR code. In Oregon, a beekeeper set up a county Facebook group specifically so the public could post swarms for whoever could get to them.
It is fast, free, and genuinely useful. It is also unstructured: you hear about a swarm only if you happen to be looking at the feed, and the usual outcome of a post is that several beekeepers answer at once and one of them wastes a drive.
One form in, matched alerts out
Dispatch and alert networks
The newer model separates the two jobs the phone list was doing at once. The public fills in one form instead of choosing a name, and the service alerts beekeepers whose stated preferences match the report. Whoever takes it gets the reporter's details.
The differences between these services are in the dispatch logic, and they are worth reading closely before you join one:
- How you are contacted. Some send a text message, WhatsApp message, or email — that is how Swarmed describes its alerts. Swarmkeeper sends a push notification to the app on your phone.
- How allocation is handled. Most are first to claim. Some add a fairness layer: SwarmReport.org, run by Portland Urban Beekeepers, releases alerts in staggered batches weighted by how recently you last claimed one, and gives you a claim code to text back and a 24-hour window to act.
- What the matching considers. Distance is universal. Height above the ground is not universal but it is not ours alone either — SwarmReport.org matches on elevation and availability as well as range.
- What your club gets. Some services let an association embed their reporting form for free, and offer a branded, club-exclusive version as a paid annual product.
Comparison
The four routes side by side
| Published swarm list | Group chat | Alert network | Swarmkeeper | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| How the public reaches you | They read a roster and phone whoever they pick. | They post in the group, or somebody forwards a number. | They fill in a form and the service alerts beekeepers nearby. | They fill in a form and matching beekeepers are alerted. |
| How you find out | Your own phone rings, from a number you do not know. | You notice the post, if you happen to be looking. | A text, WhatsApp message, or email, depending on the service. | A push notification from the app. |
| What you can filter on | Nothing. The roster lists the counties you cover; the rest is whoever calls. | Nothing. | Usually distance. Some also match on height and on whether you are available. | Distance and height above the ground, set by you. |
| How a swarm gets assigned | Whoever the caller happens to phone first. | First to reply, and often several people set off at once. | Usually first to claim. Some rotate or stagger alerts for fairness. | First to claim, in the app. |
| What it costs you | Association dues, which are usually required to be listed. | Nothing. | Commonly free to beekeepers. | Nothing. |
These are not mutually exclusive, and most active swarm collectors end up on more than one. Being on your association's list and running an app that filters by distance and height are complementary, not competing, choices.
Six questions
What to ask before you join anything
Whichever route you pick, including ours, these are the questions worth answering first.
- Is my phone number published, or held by the service? This is the single biggest difference in how much unfiltered contact you get.
- Can I turn alerts off? You have a job, a holiday, and a swarm season that peaks when you are busiest.
- How is a swarm assigned, and can I decline one? First to claim rewards whoever is at their phone. A rotation shares calls out more evenly. Neither is wrong; know which you are joining.
- Can I filter by height? A cluster at head height and one thirty feet up a conifer are different jobs, and only one of them needs your ladder.
- What happens to my club's identity? Some clubs want reports to stay with their own members. Ask whether that is the free tier or a paid one.
- Who gets the data? Ask what is kept, what is published, and whether your location is shared with anyone.
Where Swarmkeeper fits
Swarmkeeper is our free app for beekeepers and clubs. You set the distance you are willing to travel and the swarm heights you are prepared to reach, and you get a push notification when a report matches. You claim it in the app and coordinate with the reporter directly. Clubs can create a shared group with a common feed and map, and keep their own members and their own identity.
It is free, it is a nonprofit's app rather than a business, and the reports come from a free public service that collects swarms alive rather than killing them. If it is not the right fit for you, your state or county association's swarm list is a genuinely good place to start, and we would rather you were on that than on nothing.