Honey bees on Key Biscayne, from beach towers to bayfront lots

Key Biscayne is a barrier island that hangs off the mainland by a single causeway, and the village sits in the middle of it, about 1.25 square miles squeezed between two large parks. Crandon Park fills the north end and Bill Baggs Cape Florida State Park takes roughly the southern third, so open land with old trees, hammock and mangrove edges lies on both sides of every street in town.

Inside the village limits, the housing splits cleanly. More than 5,900 of the roughly 7,200 homes are in multi-family buildings, most of the tall ones lined up along the beach. West of Crandon Boulevard the island turns into a grid of single-family lots, where small houses from the 1950s have been giving way to larger ones built up above flood elevation. A colony of honey bees has plenty of choices here: a hollow in a tower's mechanical space, a void in a new stem wall, a dock box on the bay. The rest of this page walks through those choices and what getting a crew onto the island involves.

Where a colony sets up on this island

Notes by part of the village

• The beach condominium row

  Most of the higher-density buildings stand on the ocean side, and many hold 50 or more units each. Work here goes through management, so a COI and a scheduled window come before anyone touches the facade or the roof.

• Ocean Drive to Crandon Boulevard

  Between Ocean Drive and the boulevard is a belt of medium-density apartments and condominiums. Shared walls and roofs mean one colony can affect several units, as on the condo blocks of Miami Beach and Bal Harbour, and the association decides who signs off on the opening and the repair.

• The Crandon Boulevard corridor

  The boulevard runs the full length of the village and carries every car on and off the island. Retail sits mostly on its west side. Shops and offices here get bees in signage, rooftop units and planters, and a visit is timed around traffic and parking.

• Village Green and McIntyre Street

  Village Hall sits on West McIntyre Street, and the village also runs the 9.5-acre Village Green with its fields and jogging path. Bees in a tree or fixture on public land should be reported to the village; a colony on your side of the property line is something you can book.

• West of Fernwood Road

  Fernwood Road parallels Crandon Boulevard and forms the western edge of the shops along it. Past it the streets turn residential, and older houses sit beside newer raised ones, so a colony can be in an old wall cavity on one lot and under a fresh stem wall next door.

• Harbor Drive and Hurricane Harbor

  Harbor Drive is one of the two collector streets that feed the residential west side. The village's waterfront single-family lots, Hurricane Harbor among them, tend to run past 15,000 square feet, and nearly every bayfront one has a seawall. Long yards mean a colony can hide far from the front door.

One causeway, and why it matters

Every truck that reaches Key Biscayne comes over the Rickenbacker Causeway, across Virginia Key, which belongs to the City of Miami, over Bear Cut, then down Crandon Boulevard through Crandon Park. There is no back road. For you that means two things. First, a crew bringing a lift, a bee vacuum and repair materials has to load everything before it leaves the mainland, so a good photo or a clear description up front saves a second crossing. Second, beach traffic on a warm weekend can slow the boulevard, which is why a booked weekday slot is the calmest choice for a colony that is not hurting anyone.

None of that changes the 24-hour response guarantee. If someone is being stung, that household is answered ahead of every calm colony, causeway or not, and our emergency bee service covers the island the same as the mainland. Emergency trips at night or over the weekend are billed above the weekday rate, and the quote tells you which one you are paying for before anyone heads south.

Condominium buildings and their boards

With most island homes in multi-family buildings, a large share of bee problems here start on a balcony or a roof that belongs to an association. If you live in one of those units, the useful first step is to tell the manager or front desk, then send us a photo. A COI, the insurance document most boards ask a vendor for, can go straight to the building so it is on file before the crew arrives.

In a high-rise, the colony is rarely where the bees are flying. They may enter through a gap at a slab edge and build inside a chase or a ceiling that serves several units. Thermal imaging lets the crew trace the warm cluster before a single panel comes off, which keeps the opening small. Patching the slab edge, drywall or stucco falls to our own licensed tradespeople, and an itemized invoice with photos can go to the association for its records. Our high-rise and condo service page goes deeper on building work.

Raised houses, old houses and the space between

The village's master plan puts most of the land at 4 to 6.5 feet above sea level, against base flood elevations of 7 to 11 feet on the FEMA map. New houses therefore go up on raised floors, and the gap between grade and the first floor becomes a new kind of cavity. Honey bees like a dry, enclosed space with one small entrance, and a vent or a cracked stucco joint at the base of a stem wall fits that well.

The older houses that remain bring the opposite problem: age, and the small openings it leaves in soffits, roof edges and additions. Either way, vacuuming the bees is only half the job; every sheet of wax and all the stored honey leave the cavity as well. Honey and wax left in a wall draw the next swarm to the same spot, which is the whole subject of this field guide piece on return swarms. Our workmanship is warrantied, so a new colony in a cavity we closed means the crew makes another trip over the bridge.

Parks on both ends of the village

Crandon Park covers 808 acres on the north end, with beach, a nature center, a marina and mangroves around Calusa Park. Bill Baggs Cape Florida State Park, home of the Cape Florida Light first built in 1825, was restored with native hammock after Hurricane Andrew knocked down its invasive Australian pines in 1992. That is a lot of wooded land next to houses, and any wooded land can hold wild colonies in hollow trees.

In spring, colonies split and send out swarms, and a swarm that leaves the trees may stop on the nearest fence, mailbox or car. A clump hanging in the open may lift off by the next day, as soon as its scouts agree on a cavity; our swarm pickup page and the guide to scout bees explain the difference. A cluster that stays put overnight, or a line of bees disappearing into a wall, is your signal to pick up the phone. Colonies inside park land are for the park to handle; anything on your property is ours to take out alive and pass to a beekeeper through our colony relocation work.

When the house sits empty part of the year

Plenty of island units and houses are lived in only part of the year. A home that stays closed through the summer gives scouts weeks of quiet to settle into a shutter box or an attic vent. If you are away, a property manager or neighbor can meet the crew, and we can send photos of the colony, the removal and the repair so you see the work without flying in. The field guide note on colonies at a part-time residence has a short list of things to check before you leave and when you return. Pricing runs about $300 to $400 for a ground-level job, and up into the thousands when a tower facade or a raised slab needs opening and rebuilding; the cost page breaks that down.

How a removal visit runs on Key Biscayne

1. Photo and paperwork

   It starts with a picture of the entry point and the street address. For a condominium or association property, our COI goes to the manager and we agree on a time window the building accepts.

2. Over the causeway

   Before leaving the mainland, the crew loads the vacuum, protective gear, thermal camera and repair supplies, pays the southbound toll and drives the length of Crandon Boulevard to you.

3. Find, open and remove

   The thermal camera locates the comb behind stucco, a ceiling or a stem wall. The crew opens the smallest workable section, vacuums the bees, cuts out every piece of comb and cleans up the honey.

4. Seal, repair and hand off

   Our own contractors, roofers or painters close and refinish whatever was cut. The colony leaves the island with the crew and goes to a beekeeper, and you get photos and an itemized invoice on request.

Matching removal work

Questions people ask us

Places next door