The plight of the honeybee in the United States is as worrisome as ever, due to colony collapse disorder.

You may not be able to save every bee in the country, but a network of Lancaster County beekeepers is pleading for residents to help save the ones quite possibly in their own backyards.

Swarms of honeybees — when half a bee colony splinters off and flies away to form a new hive — have been showing up often in local residents’ homes and yards this summer.

Beekeeper Lori Stahl of Manheim Township has already retrieved seven around the county this summer.

Too often, though, the appearance of this nonaggressive but buzzing mass on a backyard tree branch or under the eaves of a roof sends the homeowner running for a can of pesticide to kill the strangers.

“Most people have no awareness when they see a swam,” says Stahl. “They’re just terrified. But actually, they are so full of honey they are very passive.”

That kind of misguided over-reaction breaks the heart of beekeepers like Stahl. She and at least 18 other members of the Lancaster County Beekeepers Society are a phone call away from coming out and removing the bees for free.

They do not remove wasps, hornets or other kinds of bees. And the free service does not extend to honeybee colonies that have already established a hive inside a building. There is a fee for that removal.

For a “swarm list” of beekeepers nearest you, and their phone numbers, click here.

The Lancaster County Beekeepers Society was established in 1876.

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When a swarm of bees arrives, the colony clings together while scouts go looking for a suitable cavity somewhere to start anew.

There may be from 6,000 to 12,000 bees in the swarm.

When the scouts find a new home, they come back and waggle their cute little behinds at a rate consistent with how excited they are about the suitability of the new digs.

Every member of the hive has to agree before the thousands of bees take off en masse, according to Stahl, who has no less than 30 hives in eight locations around Lancaster County.

To further educate people on the plight and importance of honeybees, the Lancaster County Beekeepers Society and North Museum of Natural History & Science will celebrate National Honey Bee Day on Saturday at the museum at 400 College Ave.

As part of the activities, the hive the group keeps at the museum will be opened at 11:30 a.m. so visitors can peek inside. Those attending will get a free taste of the fresh honey.

There also will be demonstrations on how to make a seed ball to spread native flowers that bees need to survive at 2 p.m.

Activities at the museum will be held from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Lancaster County Beekeepers will be on hand to talk to visitors all day and will have live drone bees that kids can handle. At 12:30 p.m., learn how to make a water bottle for pollinators, taste honey and observe a hive. There also will be a see-like-a-bee activity.

Honey bees pollinate 70 percent of all the food in the world. But in 2006, a mysterious collapse killed 30 to 90 percent of hives in the U.S. The cause? According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, “Despite a number of claims in the general and scientific media, a cause or causes of CCD have not been identified by researchers.”

Bees are still struggling to survive. All the more reason to help the honey bees that show up at your doorstep.