City of Miami, Coconut Grove
Honey bees in Coconut Grove's trees, rock walls and old houses
The Grove held on to its hammock, its 1891 Barnacle and its limestone walls, and honey bees like all three. The colony leaves alive, the tree and the old wood stay, and the gap gets closed.
Around Coconut Grove
- Part ofThe City of Miami, which annexed the Grove in 1925
- Oldest house on its siteThe Barnacle, 1891, oldest in Miami-Dade still where it was built
- Charles AvenueBuilt in the 1880s by Bahamian settlers
- Eastern edgeBiscayne Bay
- Garden estatesVizcaya keeps 50 acres; The Kampong covers 11
Coconut Grove is not a separate city. Miami annexed it in 1925, so a Grove address is a City of Miami address, and city rules govern your trees and permits. What makes bee work here unusual is how much the neighborhood refused to lose. Ralph Munroe's Barnacle, built in 1891, still stands on Main Highway in a patch of tropical hardwood hammock. Bahamian settlers built Charles Avenue in the 1880s, and shotgun houses and churches still line it. Oolitic limestone, the local coral rock, turns up in garden walls and fences across the Grove.
A swarm house-hunting in spring is looking for a sheltered hollow about as big as a beach cooler, reachable through one narrow slot. Old shade trees with rotted limb stubs, frame houses built long before modern weather sealing, and stone walls with tired mortar all qualify. So the task in the Grove is specific: get the colony out without felling a protected tree or tearing out historic material, then shut the slot so the next swarm moves on.
Where colonies settle on Grove properties
Hollow limbs in old shade trees
Big canopy trees drop limbs, and the stubs rot back into neat cavities. Because the City of Miami regulates removing and heavily pruning trees, the sensible move is to take the bees out of the hollow and leave the limb, the trunk and your shade alone.
Coral rock walls and planters
Garden walls of oolitic limestone are rough-faced, with irregular voids behind the stone. One cracked joint gives scouts a door. A thermal scan shows which stretch holds comb, so only those few stones are lifted and later reset.
Under raised wood floors
Some older frame houses stand on piers, the way The Barnacle was raised on wood pilings, with lattice skirting around the crawl space. Comb gets hung from the underside of the floor joists, and the hum reaches the room above before anyone sees a bee.
Behind siding and in eaves
On wood cottages, boards shrink and soffit vents work loose over the decades. Bees need only a slot about as thick as a finger. Comb is then built between studs or rafters close to that slot, so a prompt call means less comb to cut out and a smaller patch.
Pool houses, sheds and garden structures
Larger landscaped lots carry guest cottages, potting sheds, pergolas and irrigation valve boxes. Spaces that nobody opens for weeks suit a colony well, and a gardener or pool technician may be the first person to run into it.
Boathouses and docks on the bay
Biscayne Bay forms the Grove's eastern edge. On waterfront lots, dock boxes, boat covers and boathouse framing offer dry shelter a short flight from the flowering hedges and trees that feed a colony.
Bees in an old oak or a rock wall?
Text a photo of the entry hole so the conversation starts before anyone climbs a ladder.
Notes by part of the Grove
West Grove and Charles Avenue
Bahamian laborers set up the Grove's first Black settlement here in the 1880s, and Charles Avenue keeps its shotgun houses, churches and historic cemetery. Where street parking is limited, the truck gets planned in ahead and any cut into old siding stays as narrow as the comb allows.
Center Grove
Around Main Highway, McFarland Road and Grand Avenue, shops and restaurants share blocks with homes, and Peacock Park occupies the site of the 1882 Bay View Inn. Shop owners can have a COI in hand before anyone sets up near the sidewalk.
Main Highway corridor
The Barnacle's hammock and Plymouth Congregational Church, a vine-covered stone building from 1917 at Devon Road, sit along this shaded road. Stone, deep shade and mature trees make walls and trunks the places to check first.
Dinner Key and the waterfront
Dinner Key is the marina complex on the bay, and Miami City Hall operates from the old Pan American terminal there. Near the water, check dock boxes, covered boats and the eaves of bayside buildings.
Along LeJeune Road
LeJeune Road marks the Grove's western edge, with the Gables on the far side. If a colony straddles a property line here, the two cities keep separate rules, so give the exact address when you call.
Up toward the causeway
The northern edge follows US 1 and the Rickenbacker Causeway, with Brickell and The Roads, two more City of Miami neighborhoods, just past it. Buildings run by associations or managers here may want insurance paperwork on file before work begins.
Protected canopy, hollow trunk
Chapter 17 of the City of Miami code was written to protect the canopy. It calls for a permit before anyone removes or relocates a tree, and another before pruning more than 25 percent of a crown within a year. For most Grove owners that settles it: the tree stays and the bees go.
A colony inside a trunk comes out through its own entrance when possible, or through a small access cut that is plugged and sealed afterward. The thermal scan, explained in our note on heat cameras, tells us where the comb ends before any saw touches bark. Bees are drawn off with low suction, comb is lifted out in slabs, and the colony goes to a beekeeper. That approach is laid out under tree and palm colonies.
Spraying a colony inside a hollow is a poor shortcut even before counting the dead bees. The honey and wax left sealed in there ferment, feed wax moths and beetles, and keep sending out the smell that tells the next swarm a home is ready.
Old wood, coral stone, and putting both back
An old wood cottage or early frame house punishes the cut-first approach. Once the comb is mapped, the opening follows it: a few siding boards, one soffit panel, a short run of wall stone.
The people who close it up are our own licensed tradespeople, carpenters, roofers and painters alike, answering to the same company that opened the wall. Siding gets matched for profile and color; limestone goes back in mortar, never in spray foam. If the house is historically designated or sits on Charles Avenue, talk to the city's historic preservation office before exterior materials change. Details live under repair work after a removal and clearing out comb and honey.
The patch is warrantied as workmanship, and if bees ever reoccupy a spot we closed, the crew comes back. The scent problem is the reason that promise matters.
Gates, house managers and owners out of town
Many larger Grove properties run through a gate, a house manager or a landscape crew, and the owner may be traveling when bees appear. Whoever holds the keys can meet the crew, while you approve the quote by phone. On request, photos of each stage and a line-by-line invoice go to you wherever you are. If the house sat shut for the off season, our seasonal-home guide lists what a caretaker should look at, and associations or landlords can read our page for managed properties about insurance paperwork.
Quiet bees and nobody at risk? Then a weekday slot keeps the price down; rushing out in the evening or on a weekend costs the owner more. The pricing page walks through what moves a quote up or down.
How a Grove visit goes
Photos and access first
Send a picture of the entry hole and mention gates, a house manager, dogs, or a neighbor's tree leaning over the fence. If street parking is tight, say so and it gets sorted out in advance.
Mapping the comb
The thermal camera reads warmth through siding, stone and bark, so the outline of the comb is marked before anyone chooses where to open.
Bees out alive
Bees go into a ventilated box under gentle suction, comb is cut free a section at a time, and the whole colony rides to a beekeeper for a new home.
Sealed and restored
The cavity is scraped clean and closed, then our own trades match the wood, stone or paint so the spot disappears into the house again.
Matching removal work
Questions people ask us
Coconut Grove isn't its own city, so whose rules apply to the tree with bees in it?
The City of Miami's, because the Grove became part of Miami in 1925. City code requires a permit to take down or relocate a tree, and to cut back more than a quarter of its crown in a year. Pulling a colony from a hollow leaves the tree standing. If reaching the comb would ever take more than a small access hole, you hear about it before any cutting so you can check with the city.
Bees are living in my old coral rock garden wall. How much of it gets taken apart?
Only a few stones, as a rule. The thermal scan picks out the stretch of wall holding comb, and only those stones come off. Comb and honey are removed, the void is scrubbed so no scent lingers, and the stones are set back in mortar. The rest of the wall is never touched.
My house is an old wood-frame cottage. Will the repair stand out?
It shouldn't. The opening is limited to the boards or panel covering the comb, and our own carpenters and painters close it with matching siding and paint. Homes with a historic designation may need city sign-off on exterior materials, so a quick word with the preservation office first is worth it.
Bees are clumped on a limb over my driveway, humming. Do I have a hive?
Probably not yet. A hanging cluster is a swarm that has left its old home and is parked while scouts inspect cavities nearby, and your eaves could be on their list. It hasn't built comb yet, so collecting it is far simpler than cutting a colony out of a wall. Keep people and pets away from it, leave it unsprayed and unhosed, and phone in so it can be boxed alive. More on that in how scouts pick a cavity and collecting a swarm.
A storm brought down a limb and there's comb in it. What now?
Keep everyone well clear. Bees whose hollow was split open by the wind are agitated and will defend the exposed comb. Don't try to move the limb. Call, and see our storm guide for what to do while you wait.
Do the bees get killed?
No. Each colony leaves alive and goes to a beekeeper to be rehoused. Poison would also leave honey and wax inside your tree or wall to rot, which invites pests and makes the cavity more attractive to the next swarm.
Places next door
Keep the tree, lose the bees
Call or send the quote form, and the removal gets planned so your canopy and your old walls come through intact.
Tell us where the bees are
Three fields are enough to start: your name, a number we can reach, and the city or neighborhood. Anything else you add saves a question on the callback.
- (786) 442-2496
- Prefer texting? Send a picture
- Someone picks up day and night