Honey Bee Removal from Chimney near Poole
We carried out this honey bee removal from a chimney near Poole, Dorset in early March.
What a great time of year to be doing a honey bee removal.
The bees have seen the majority of the winter thru, all honey has been capped, stores have been reduced significantly, the bees are only now bringing in pollen, the weather is cool so the wax is firmer – not a lot mind, but enough to reduce the possibility of dropping some.
We had been sent a few photos of the chimney and realised the best option was going to be for some scaffold to be erected, fortunately the scaffolders were able to build up from a flat section of roof that could be reached via a door in the attic space.
Still we didn’t really know what to expect before arriving.
First peak down the chimney showed a water bottle in with the comb; that water bottle had an amusing storey to it as it was part of a setup to try to prevent the bees from settling.
These pots are quite large but we were able to remove the one over the colony without damaging it. As we moved it off the crown we pulled away some of the attached comb running up the inside of the pot.
It soon became clear that the honey bees had been busy over the few months that they had been in the chimney the previous summer: you can see the length of the comb being pulled out, and they had utilised all the width and breadth of the chimney flue.
We managed to remove all the comb without dropping any and were also able to save the brood placing it into a nuc box along with a lot of nurse bees.
The following morning we recombined the bees from the vac box with the brood.
Four weeks on and it could be seen that the queen was happily laying eggs getting ready for summer.
A great result all round.
For further information on bee removal and relocation please use the contact form in the side bar or
Call 01297 441272 to speak to someone local who knows all about it.
If you are looking for more info on removing bees from a chimney check out our article Removing bees in a chimney, for information on bee removal and relocation from roofs you may want to look at our page Honey bees in roof, or if you have bees in a wall our page Honey bees in wall maybe of use.
For additional examples on removals of honey bees from other more unusual places check thru The Hive Blog and search for “unusual bee removals”.
