Why its important to act quickly when a bee swarm takes up residence
When a honey bee swarm decides to take up residence in your property, its important to flush them out as quickly as possible. After only a few days this becomes very difficult because the bees have invested so much into their new home.
6 day old honey bee swarm in a roof cavity
The above photo shows a honey bee nest that had been in situ for just 6 days. They were occupying a ceiling cavity of a flat roof, the height of the space was about 220mm, and the width between rafters about 400mm (we had not thought of measuring the space at the time, but this is a fair estimate).
The bees were using a very small gap between the fascia and some lead flashing covering some hanging tiles, which very unusually was 800mm or more away from the actual nest location.
Because of the location the only viable access was by removing a section of plaster and lath ceiling.
Because we were unable to pick up a thermal reading we initially removed a section of ceiling spanning two rafter spaces based on our knowledge and experience.
Here we found a couple of pieces of old dried out comb, and some bee activity, but nothing like our expectations.
This opening was then expanded to three rafter sections and then to four rafter sections where we found the honey bee nest.
Historically honey bees had occupied the roof space on the other side of the room, so it was decided that an another section of ceiling should be removed so that we could hopefully discourage bees from reoccupying the space in the future.
Honey bee swarm in a chimney
coming soon
Honey bee swarm in a wall
coming soon
