Honeybees seldom receive any public attention at all until someone notices a swarm. The enquiries beekeepers receive then are nearly always aimed at discovering how to remove it. Fortunately this is usually a simple event which even the most inexperienced of beekeepers can tackle confidently. Unfortunately, many beekeepers have neither the equipment nor the time to devote to rounding up swarms, and these days many are unwilling to expose their own apiaries to the risk of introduced pests or diseases by collecting foreign colonies. Rather than press-gang individual beekeepers into action the best thing to do is to reach a local association who will have organized a coordinated approach to swarm collection using their members. In Surrey these associations can be found though the Surrey Bee Keepers Association, but your local authority, library, and police station usually have telephone numbers for swarm coordinators. Equipment suppliers listed in your local phone book often know who's who too. Don't use email. Unless it's in the evening, or the weather cool or wet, a swarm will have moved on in an hour or so.

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