Extracting Bees From a Chimney?

[malawi2854]

Hello all,

I have a chap who has contacted me, with a swarm in his chimney. He reckons they arrived a little over a week ago - at least, that is when they first made their presence felt.

He has a gas fire in his living room, and he is getting around 50 bees a day coming through from beneath it - rather odd, I thought?

I can clearly see bees coming and going from outside, at the top of the chimney, going in and out the top from the looks of it.
These bees that are coming out in his living room fly around on the windows for a while, but unsurprisingly, are dying shortly after.
He is counting them daily - and is averaging about 45-50 a day.

The bees he has in his living room today, apart from being rather cold and tired, look healthy to the eye.


My question is how would I go about removing them?

Naturally, before I got there, they tried "gassing" them out with the gas fire... which only appeared to lead to more bees entering the living room!

The weather is rather touch and go down here at present, but is quite warm still - and it's supposed to be positively sub-tropical by the end of the week.

Would a lemongrassed bait hive work do we think?

 

[susbees]

If they just swarmed in why would they just swarm back out again? So I'd say this probably won't work and by the time it does the chimney will be full of combs and stores and harder to deal with.

I'd say this is one for a beekeeper experienced in such things. If you have BDI insurance it doesn't cover you for working at heights etc etc. So best someone who's covered by their usual work insurance.

 

[viridens]

In my experience chimneys appear to be good hollow trees to scouts and are not just the first place they settle, and once they are in there they will be building comb and are very unlikely to be tempted back out.

There is no such thing as a standard chimney, and there may be bends and changes of direction, and you don't know whether they are 10 inches or 20 feet down. Accessing chimneys is usually a health and safety nightmare too, especially when you are wearing bee gear.
.
I have managed to harvest bees from a chimney (they were just in the pot) by grabbing and cracking off the combs and bees and putting them in a cardboard box. Most of the disturbed bees eventually followed the queen to the box and I was able to hive them. I wouldn't recommend the experience.

If they can't be collected there is the dilemma what to do next.......

 

[Midland Beek]

My question is how would I go about removing them?

Do you really think they are removable?

 

[kighill]

I have removed bees from a chimney; it was very difficult and not good for the bees. The owner of the property (three storeys) knocked a couple of bricks out of the chimney having first knocked a huge hole in the wall of the adjacent bedroom first.

The method of removal was not easy nor bee friendly, I next used a piece of board to form a slope from the breast towards me to prevent bees from falling all the way to the ground floor. Using a chimney sweeps rod and in full protective clothing in a very hot loft space I swept the chimney.

I really hoped to find the queen but failed to do so although I did manage to remove a skep full of honeycomb etc.

I did manage to remove the bees but was not able to save them.

I have also tried this at another property the householder had been informed by a National Pest Control Company that she had honey bees in her chimney and it would cost £350 to get them out via poisoning.

This one was easier because I swept the chimney from inside the house. Having first informed the owner I did not suspect honey bees to be present, when upon inspection I found numerous dead bumble bees inside the fireplace and despite using binoculars not been able to see any activity at chimney height to point towards honeybees.

The lady was happy for the chimney to be swept if only for re-assurance. The gas fire was disconnected free of charge by the gas company.

Having swept the chimney, like I suspected no bees were present, but on the bright side the lady did save £350.

I am informed by a very knowledgeable beekeeper the best chance of removing bees is immediately upon them entering or within 24 hours. Using very heavy smoke over a prolonged time MAY do the trick.

My thought is you are always learning when beekeeping the thing I have learnt on both occasions is

Call in the professionals and advise the house owner to get three quotes.

Ps a report from 2008 showed a 'professional Pest Controller' receiving a £1000 fine for poisoning bees.

At Sheffield Magistrates Court on 12th March 2008 Mr J A pleaded guilty to four offences of not taking all reasonable precautions in using an insecticide containing bendiocarb. He was fined £200 for each offence and a further £200 towards costs.

 

[C22]

[/B]Ps a report from 2008 showed a 'professional Pest Controller' receiving a £1000 fine for poisoning bees.

At Sheffield Magistrates Court on 12th March 2008 Mr J A pleaded guilty to four offences of not taking all reasonable precautions in using an insecticide containing bendiocarb. He was fined £200 for each offence and a further £200 towards costs.

I remember this case against the pest controller, the guy had treated a feral bees nest in a rotten tree, the guy used bendiocarb which is fine but the problem was he didn't block the access for foraging bees as per regulations, a local beekeepers hives were wiped out!

I have removed quite a few colonies from chimneys and to date I haven't failed, yes it can be expensive but faced with the propersition of being overun with wasps and hornets and not to mention the fire hazard come winter time I consider my services cheap

I have tried bait hives but I have never been sucessful, you must get the comb out altogether or your problems will just begin.

 

[Swarm]

Love that last pic!

 

[kathrynat]

Brilliant photos, thanks for sharing

 

[Chris Luck]

It's possible in the first few days, maybe up to about a week after they have moved in if you can keep steadily smoking them from below and force them to swarm again, I did one a few weeks ago that had been in for 5 days. It requires patience with no guarantee of outcome but I have about a 90% success rate although I'm really getting a bit too old to be playing about on roofs.

Chris

 

[For want of a better word]

Based on ignorance and a sense of humour...

Get a roofing type person to climb up to chimney pot and tie a post office sack over it loosely.
Get a set of sweeps brushes and poke carefully up flue to pot.

Bees and nest will be expelled by brush out of pot and into bag.. then all you have to do is tie up bag, sling over handlebars of bicycle and peddle like mad back to apiary where bees will find a nice new home... 3 miles from chimney of course!!!

 

[malawi2854]

Thanks for your replies all - I can assure you, I have no particular intention of climbing on top of the house... I get quite wobbly enough 6ft up a tree... never mind on a roof!

I will give the bait hive a go - nothing to lose - doubt it'll work - but worth a try.

May well give smoking them a go from the bottom of the chimney... anyone got any cardboard?!?

 

[Ambodach]

I can't remember quite how many years ago it was now - within the last ten or twelve anyhow. My mother's neighbour got a swarm into her chimney - one that was only climbable by anyone who was a seriously well equipped or by a traditional chimney sweep. It was the flue in her spare bedroom and covered over and unused.

I was neither a professional chimney sweep nor well equipped, but just a bog-standard back garden beekeeper, and had to take the decision that this was someone's house which had been invaded and getting rid of any invaders justified anything. The hardboard cover over the fireplace was eased away from it's frame and, having checked that the flue was not bunged up, a number of those firework type insect smoke bombs were lit in the old hearth. Destructive I'm afraid, but it did the job, which was required to prevent the old lady suffering from a significant nuisance.

No doubt our good friends (!) in the EEC have banned such smoke bombs.
Rob

 

[merylvingien]

No doubt our good friends (!) in the EEC have banned such smoke bombs.
Rob

No they havent, but they are called smoke generators now and you can only buy them if you have the relevant qualifications, rightly so.

I wouldnt light a smoke generator inside a house that was lived in. Professional suicide.

 

[user 382]

... you must get the comb out altogether or your problems will just begin.

Too right. A few years back I was called out by a lady who was absolutely petrified by bees entering her living room from behind her gas fire. When I got there she presented me with a plastic box full of honey bees... all 5 or 6 of them. Even after watching the chimney for an hour it was obvious there was virtually no activity. Not being in a position to remove the gas fire or start climbing roofs I admitted defeat and suggested the local pest control service and then to have the chimney pot covered with an insect proof metal mesh. I explained why this last step was important, both to safeguard other local colonies and to stop other swarms entering the chimney.

Guess what. I got another call from the same lady the following year, with more bees in the chimney. It turned out that she hadn't got a pest controller in nor had she had the chimney pot insect proofed. So I gave her numbers of pest controllers and left her to it. Sometimes you just have to say no and walk away.

Good luck to those who attempt to recover such swarms and well done to those who have succeeded. But whatever you do, stay safe!