Honey bees chimney
Pam94
Posts: 2
I have honey bee in a block off chimney, so no fireplace!
Hundreds of them started to get into the house by an air vent at the side of the block off chimney breast. I have closed this vent and put tape over it, so at the moment are unable to get into the house.
I can still see them flying around the chimney breast and I can sometimes heard them near the vent of the chimney, so they are right at the bottom of the chimney
Called out a pest controller, who advised me to wait until September, then to get a builder to go up and have a look at the chimney stack to see how they are getting in and then seal it off.
However what happens to the bees once the chimney is sealed off, do they died?
I do need to get ride of them, as I don't want the same thing to happen next year.
Any advise would be greatly appreciated.
Posts
https://www.bbka.org.uk/
Contact them right now for the sake of the precious bees and obviously yourself
You cant leave them for 12 weeks
They are not a pest but as you know and appreciate very necessary to provide us with pollinated plants for us to receive our food
Good luck
Do you mean the builder, as I have already done that but they won't get up on the roof whilst the bee's are still swarming
Newboy has given you a link to the British Beekeepers Assoc.
Click on the link and you will find help and advice to deal with a swarm of bees.
Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.
If it's honeybees as you say, they'll be more than willing to help.
Pam94........hope you can resolve the situation and save our friends on whom we all rely
Make sure that the vent is unblocked after you have dealt with the bees otherwise there will be damp which causes problems of its own. There should always be an airflow through a chimney, so don't let a builder seal it completely.
Pam 94
? Have you contacted the British Bee Keeping Association who can help you NOW
https://www.bbka.org.uk/
Just copy the link into a new page and call them please
We are all keen to know that the bees are being helped.
Pam
10 days ago you told us you had bees
? Has the British Bee Keeping Association been able to help and has someone been to remove them please
Hi NewBoy2,
I am a beekeeper with 10+ years experience.
Your confidence in the BBKA being able to do anything helpful in this situation is, unfortunately, mis-placed.
Once a queen and her swarm have taken up residence in an enclosed space like a chimney, the only way to try and get them out would be to dismantle the chimney .... and the BBKA won't be prepared to do this. It would be a different matter if they were hanging in a ball from th branch of a tree and could be caught in a skep.
Sadly, the original poster has 2 options ... either live with the bees if they are not causing a problem (they might die out over winter from varroa mites) ... or call in a pest control company to kill them.
People have unrealistic expectations of beekeepers abilities to sort out swarms ... none of us are "bee-whisperers"!
Hope this is helpful.
Bee,
A single bee creates just one twelfth of a teaspoon of honey in her lifetime
Thanks