Bees moving in.

Have successfully move into a new house (as in 'Nice Victorian house, not bad nick but plenty of DIY') in the flatlands of Cambridgeshire.

Anyway, Monday it looks like some local honey bees moved in as well.

A swarm of Honey bees appeared around our chimney stack yesterday afternoon (quite impressive buzzing sound). A quick Google indicated best course of action was to leave them and they'd probably move on.

However, a few hours later most of the bees had gone, but it looks like they have moved it, as I can see a few flying about and disappearing into an old flue.

The flue in question is a little odd, it's sort of stuck on the side of the chimney stack - it appears it was a flue for some sort of heating/stove in the conservatory. You can see a piccie here of the swarm on the outside of the flue:

Not sure if this should bother me or not, they are well up out of the way of people, but assuming I do decide it isn't a good idea to have a bee nest set up here.

Suggestions seem to be to contact a local beekeeper who may remove it.

However I'm not sure that they will be that interested anyway, access is not that easy for starters. 2 story house, with 11 foot ceilings, and this nest is right near the top of the chimney stack, so I guess a good

30 foot plus up? and how would they get them out anyway.

I did think about smoking them out - there is an open end of the flue near ground level. But if it worked would we just end up with a load of angry bees in the garden or on the village high street (we live right in the middle of the village)?

Any experience of this?

Reply to
chris French
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Contact the local environment people, who should be able to contact a local bee keeper to remove this hive for you. These people are the experts at this sort of thing, and angry bees around a hive aren't a nice thing to come into contact with. They defend their property to the death, and I mean to the death. Who's death is another matter.

Contact the experts, sir, Please!!! Don't live with it. They only come back time after time if you leave them. Maybe not to exactly to the same spot, but they know when their left alone in an area, so they make it their home season after season because they think it's safe.

Reply to
BigWallop

Been there, done it, got the T shirt and I'm a beekeeper. It's your call on this one but my experience of a local authority is that they aren't interested, and the local beekeeper won't be able to get them out either - getting a swarm to go up the way once established is not easy.

The way I did it for a friend was to get a whole lot of those fuming things used for cleaning a greenhouse and burn them in the grate with it sealed to prevent the fumes coming back into the house but allowing some draft from the bottom. I think in general the swarm left as there were only a few dead bees came down the flue, but there were a number on the ground outside.

Rob

Reply to
robkgraham

Been there, done it, got the T shirt and I'm a beekeeper. It's your call on this one but my experience of a local authority is that they aren't interested, and the local beekeeper won't be able to get them out either - getting a swarm to go up the way once established is not easy.

The way I did it for a friend was to get a whole lot of those fuming things used for cleaning a greenhouse and burn them in the grate with it sealed to prevent the fumes coming back into the house but allowing some draft from the bottom. I think in general the swarm left as there were only a few dead bees came down the flue, but there were a number on the ground outside.

Rob

Reply to
robkgraham

Hello Chris, I was wondering when we'd hear from you again!

I'm off to pick up a monitor, mine died, but I'll reply when we get back.

To date the best advice has been Rob's - but don't panic, don't do anything in a hurry, there's no urgency.

Mary

Reply to
Mary Fisher

We have bees in one of our attics, they live in holes in the stone walls. We have never tried to find anyone to try to get them out, I think access is just too difficult. They are no trouble AT ALL. They come and go, they swarm once a year, I understand to set up a new colony, sometimes they go away or they find a different hole. Last year they set up in a woodburner flue but the first fires of the season and sweeping the chimney cleared them out. The numbers seem to die down every winter, might be caused by the disease varroa?? Anyway, we have four children and lots of visitors, the bees come and go through two small windows, one directly above the kitchen door and one above a sitting area. The only time anyone has ever been stung is if there is a tired/dying bee crawling in the grass and someone stands on it. I have heard that moving them when there is honey in the hive can cause the honey to seep into the structure of the building but that if left alone they eat up the honey as they go along, which would seem to be the case here. So..... based on our experience, four years now, I think you could just leave them bee :-)

Reply to
Holly in France

Leave em Bee?

Seriosuly, whan I pulled my old house down, had a huge and very old honeycomb in one disused stack.

Wondered where the odd lost bee came from, but they bothered me not at all.

Some still come back every year looking for it.

Reply to
The Natural Philosopher

Yep, at the moment we are just going to leave them to it. Removing would be a non-trivial exercise.

They are well out of the way and I can't see any great problem they will cause for us. Handy source of pollinators for the garden as well :-)

Reply to
chris French

That's what I reasoned. Never knew WHERE they nested, just that they did, till we pulled it all down.

I don't mind sharing my house with any wildlife that doesn't personally threaten me or its structural integrity, or is just plain unsightly, like spiders...

Reply to
The Natural Philosopher

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