This is the busiest time for bees. Right now, they are most active dividing their hives looking for the perfect place to call home. But the problem is, it could be your home. Eyewitness News steps into the swarm to show you what it means to deal with a hive.

For several reasons, the valuable insect is in short supply, which means bee's are big business right now. And as it happens during this time of year a lot of bee's are invading peoples homes. But before you kill the bees, we gained exclusive access to go around with one bee keeper to see why saving the swarms could help our fields flourish.

Earlier this month a large swarm of bees were trying to make a home for themselves at the Valley Plaza Mal. At the same time another swarm was looking for a nice place to nest at Bakersfield High School. In both cases, one man was called in to move these bees out of high traffic areas where people could get hurt. Andrew Ozanich, owns his own bee removal service called Benchmark Apiaries. Ozanich explains that once the bees start building the hive is when they become more defensive, they will defend that hive from anyone who is trying to mess with them.

Ozanich collects up to a dozen bee hives a day without killing the bees. He says his method is green and also provides bees to several crops throughout the valley that rely on pollination.

Ozanich showed us several swarms packed up in his truck. One hive weighed about a pound. That many bees can be dangerous especially to people who are allergic and could go into shock. But even if people are not allergic, several bee stings or a specific kind of bee sting can be deadly. That's because the body's reaction to a bee sting may differ significantly from one species to another. Ozanich tells us "As many times as I do get stung, that could be the histamine that I am allergic too and we're gonna run to the hospital."

But not everyone knows about the dangers, like Jose Vargas, who had a swarm in his neighborhood and took matters into his own hands. Vargas explained how they attempted to fight the bees telling us "We talked to a friend of ours who is a gardener, he told us to spray them with hot water and soap, so we just threw water at them." Vargas says he and his neighbor were worried about kids in the area getting hurt, their dog had already gotten stung several times, he said that the dog was crying in pain. Vargas and his neighbor managed to kill hundreds of bee's, but their method is not endorsed by the experts, or Vargas himself who tells Eyewitness News, "What we did was something crazy, I don"t think people should do it at home." And Ozanich offers this advice, "If you encounter a hive that is swarming stay clear and go inside an enclosure and stay there until the settle down or pass by."

I checked with the City of Bakersfield and the County, and there is no free service offered by Vector Control to rid your home of bees but they will give you the number for several bee removal services in the county. Ozanich is one of several businesses on a list vector control gives out when people call to report bee problems.

The number for Vector Control is 589-2744