Smoking Honey Bees Out of a Chimney or Building
Whether smoking honey bees out of a chimney, wall cavity or other structure is worth attempting depends on a number of factors. This page covers what we know about it honestly – the chemistry, the risks, the specific conditions under which it might work, and why in most circumstances it either cannot be done safely or is unlikely to succeed.
We also cover natural oil alternatives, which carry none of the fire risk associated with a bee smoker and can be effective in the right circumstances.
Important:
This page is informational. We are not recommending that anyone attempt to smoke bees out of their property.
The risks are real and in many scenarios the method will not work.
If you have a recently arrived swarm, see our Urgent Swarm Eviction page.
If the colony is established, smoking is not appropriate and specialist removal is needed.
Why Smoke Affects Honey Bees
Beekeepers have used smoke to manage bees during hive inspections for centuries. The mechanism is well understood. When honey bees sense danger they release alarm pheromones – principally isopentyl acetate and 2-heptanone – from a gland near the stinger. These pheromones put the colony on alert and trigger a defensive response in other bees.
Smoke masks these pheromones by reducing the electroantennograph response of the bees’ antennae – essentially interfering with their ability to detect the alarm signal. Strong floral odours can have a similar effect. The response is reversible; antennae sensitivity returns within ten to twenty minutes of smoke being removed.
The instinct triggered by persistent smoke goes deeper than pheromone masking. In nature, smoke signals fire – and a colony that senses fire will begin preparing to abandon its nest, gorging on honey stores in preparation for moving on. A persistent, low-level smoke source over an extended period exploits this instinct.
The Low Heat Smoky Fire – What Works and What Doesn’t
There is one approach that occasionally succeeds with a very recently arrived colony in a chimney – a low temperature, persistently smoky fire in the fireplace, maintained over an extended period of seven to ten days.
Some people have had success with this method. Success has also been reported where bees are in an adjacent flue within a shared chimney stack rather than the flue directly served by the fireplace – smoke permeating through the stack can affect the colony in some configurations.
We are not recommending this approach. We are identifying it as something that has worked for some people in specific circumstances. The conditions under which it might be considered and the risks involved are set out below.
Conditions Required for This to Have Any Chance of Working
Timing:
For this method to have any realistic chance of success it needs to be attempted within the first one to three days of the colony arriving. By day three it becomes progressively more difficult.
Beyond seven days it is unlikely to work regardless of how it is done – the colony is committed to the space.
The Wax and Honey Fire Risk
This is the danger most people don’t consider. If a colony has been present for any length of time and has begun building comb, raising the temperature within the flue softens and weakens the wax. The weight of honey stores pulls on the weakened comb, causing it to fall. When falling wax contacts the flames it ignites – and a wax and honey fire burns at very high temperatures and spits.
Remember the energy content of sugar from school chemistry experiments. A honey and wax fire in a chimney is not a contained domestic fire – it is a serious chimney fire risk.
This is why the fire must be low heat, why this approach should not be used if bees have been present for more than a very short time, and why you must be certain there was no previous colony in that chimney. Old wax from an earlier infestation can ignite just as easily as fresh comb. Worse, some may have fallen down the flue over the years and be sitting close to the fireplace – right where the heat is concentrated.
The Bee Drop Risk
A further risk specific to chimneys: if a recently arrived swarm is clustering near the top of the flue and is disturbed by smoke, the entire cluster can drop down the flue into the fireplace and enter the room.
This is not a theoretical risk – it happens.
Before attempting any fire in a fireplace where bees have recently entered, the fireplace opening needs to be managed and you need to be aware of the risk.
Why a Beekeeper’s Smoker Should Not Be Used
The method described above uses a low heat domestic fire in the fireplace – not a beekeeper’s smoker. These are very different things and the distinction matters. A beekeeper’s smoker is a container with hot embers in the base. Air is blown through the embers to produce smoke, which exits through the spout along with any loose hot embers carried by the airflow. Using one in or around a property carries serious risks:
Bee removal operators who genuinely know what they are doing do not use hot smokers on properties. The risk to client and property is not justifiable. Liquid smoke in a hand sprayer is used in some circumstances but even that requires careful risk assessment.
If in doubt:
If you are not certain about any of these factors – particularly the condition of the flue – do not attempt to light a fire.
Contact a chimney sweep for an inspection first. The cost of an inspection is significantly less than the cost of a chimney fire or a carbon monoxide incident.
If the Smoky Fire Method Doesn’t Work – Act Quickly
If you attempt a low heat smoky fire on a very recently arrived swarm and do not see increased activity at the bee entrance within the first few minutes, the method is unlikely to work for your particular situation. Stop and reassess rather than increasing the heat or persisting.
The critical point: by the time you have spent a day or two attempting this method and concluded it is not working, the window for our Urgent Swarm Eviction service may be closing. Swarm eviction is most effective before the queen begins laying eggs. Contact us as soon as you conclude the self-help approach is not succeeding – do not wait another week.
Swarm Eviction Service:
If a swarm has recently arrived and you need help – or if a self-help attempt has not succeeded – see our Urgent Swarm Eviction page. The sooner we can attend, the simpler and less expensive the job.
Oil-Based Alternatives to Smoke
Oil-based products offer an alternative to smoke in some circumstances. They work by making the environment unpleasant and unfamiliar for the colony rather than by triggering the alarm response that smoke does. They carry none of the fire risk associated with a bee smoker and can be applied persistently without the need to maintain a fire.
We carry a proprietary product made from natural oils which we will offer to use where we consider it may be of benefit. We discuss it with the client before using it and they can decide whether they are happy for us to proceed. We do not hold a material safety data sheet for this product and cannot provide detailed compositional information beyond the manufacturer description – anyone wishing to know more is welcome to ask and we will share what we have.
Whether oil-based products used by a property owner are likely to achieve the same result in a domestic setting is less certain – application method, concentration, persistence and the specific situation all affect the outcome.
As with the smoky fire method, natural oils are only likely to have any effect on a recently arrived colony that has not yet fully committed to the space. For an established colony with built comb they will not achieve removal and should not be relied upon as a solution.
We would not want to advise on specific products or application methods beyond what we can say from our own experience – the composition and safety data of many products available to consumers varies considerably and we do not have sufficient knowledge of individual products to make responsible recommendations.
Proofing – Always Required Regardless of Method
Whether bees leave as a result of a smoky fire, natural oils, or specialist eviction, the proofing requirement is the same. Queen pheromones, wax and propolis create a persistent scent beacon in the cavity from almost the moment a colony arrives. That scent remains for years after the colony has gone.
Without proofing the entry point, another swarm will find the same location the following season. The problem does not resolve itself – it resets.
Related:
See our Proofing & Guarantees page for full detail on what proofing involves, what actually works for different structure types, and an honest assessment of whether guarantees are worth having.
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Honey Bees in Chimney
We attend more chimney honey bee removals than we do of any other type of honey bee removal or cutout. We don’t need to dismantle the chimney, we rarely remove more than 4 individual bricks. When honey bees occupy a chimney space it is usually one of three scenarios or a combination of them.
Honey Bees in Roof
Generally speaking honey bees don’t colonise large roof spaces, when they are flying in beneath tiles they more often than not are colonising a cavity wall or an old dismantled chimney stack that is hidden beneath the tiles. But they love dormer windows and flat roofs
Honey Bees in Wall
We remove bees from walls and we can do it without taking them down or knocking huge holes into them. We remove the bees the wax & the honey. Rarely do we need to remove more than 8 bricks, which we remove whole so they go back as they were.
For further information on bee removal and relocation please use the contact form in the side bar or message button below, or CALL 01297 441272 to speak to someone local who knows all about it.
If you are looking for information on removing bees from a chimney check out our article ‘Honey bees in chimney‘, or if you repeatedly have bee swarms take up home in your chimney you may want to look at our page ‘Why honey bees like chimneys‘ & ‘Everything you need to consider when removing bees in a chimney‘ which is a fairly extensive overview.
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 honey bees in a wall our page ‘Honey bees in wall‘ maybe of use.
For examples on removals of honey bees from these and other more unusual places check thru The Hive Blog and investigate our Tag cloud too.
Don’t forget a general overview on honey bee removals which can be found at ‘Live honey bee removal’.
