Can you call your county extension agent and see if there is a bee keeper that can come out and collect them? Since honey bees are having such a bad time all over the country here it's really good karma to help them survive as much as possible, especially since the killer bees from the south are taking over their territories. Eech! The little I do know about swarming is, you WILL know when they are swarming, they all come out and gather around the queen to protect her. From what someone told me they swarm when the new queens hatch, the queens leave and take some bees with them to start a new hive elsewhere.

You could also look in the phone book and see if there are any bee keepers in your area that would take them.

Yes, please call the county. And you don't know if the bees are africanized or not, so please be careful.

Thanks guys, we're gonna end up spraying them if they don't leave. Seems like most places charge to take care of the bees. Oh well.

No, not 'oh well'...it's well worth the money! Those bees pollinate the fruit you grow, so do your bit for them and FIND someone to come and collect them. Have you looked in the yellow pages or online to see if there are beekeepers in your area?

A swarm will cling together in a ball. They will typically find a home and move on in a few days. Seldom will they create a hive out in the open on a tree limb. If they are flying around the tree, they are likely feeding on it's blooms and will move on as soon as the bloom is over. They will not congregate around a tree unless feeding or hiving. If the tree has a hollow, they may already have a hive in it, in which case you are wasting your time spraying the flying bees. The hive will continue to produce bees until removed.

Sorry Onafixedincome but I can't really see the point in paying a hundred or so to remove a swarm of nonaggressive bees when I could easily by a $2 pesticide spray bottle to get rid of them. And yes, I've contacted beekeepers in the area, pricing is about the same. I'm hoping they will leave on their own, but the last time I let this happen, they ended up nesting under the eaves of the roofing(They have already entered the structure of the house which is going to be a problem and been there for over a year now so its gonna end up costing more money than it should of in the beginning). Sorry, I like the fellas but can't have this right now.

Wish I were closer; I know very little but would happily 'adopt' the swarm if it wasn't Africanized and send it to a friend out by Antelope Valley....

Sorry to hear about your predicament, as we have borers that bore into our house and end up inside. They do structural damage but we kill them with a nail. If I had a swarm of bees in our eaves, I'd let them alone or contact the county extension. After all, if they bees die out or are replaced by africanized bees, we humans as well as the birds and other wildlife that depend on pollination are going to 'bee' in BIG trouble. Maybe if you make a bee skep for them, they'd live in that?
http://members.aol.com/ljludes/BeeSkep.html