To be annoyed that killing things is so much more cost effective?

I bought an old rocking horse from an old manor house sale where it had been up in the attics for decades.. Looking down the pommel hole with a mag lite into the horse's ''belly'' there was a small wasp's nest inside it.

The wasps had long gone, but it was fascinating to see where these little insects make their homes.

I have fly stickers and bug spay and a flip flop anything flying or crawling in my home better fly or crawl out just as fast or meet their fate.

Could you start a "go fund me" not to kill the bees ?

Then all the people who are saying don't kill them can fund the £2500-£150-£living expenses to not kill them.

I keep bees and there is no way I would climb up your chimney to try and get them. I will go as high as me standing on a chair. I can’t imaging anyone I know coming out either, sorry.

If you have something that vibrates you can put at the base of the chimney that may annoy them away. Otherwise (reluctantly) it’s a killing job.

I know it might seem odd but have you thought of contacting a localbchimney sweep for advice?

Bit more information here

I don’t think anyone here hates honey bees, they would just rather quite like to live in their house and don’t have or want to spend 2.5k for the privilege.

I don't know anything about Bees but won't the swarm make a new hive next year and come back! God, I'd sell the house. Fuck having a house full of Bees INDEED.

😆

I’d kill them, no way would I spend 2.5k. It’s ridiculous you can’t go home because of cost. I hope they remove them afterwards though.

This sounds like the start of an episode of Casualty 😂😂

Have you got Household insurance there maybe a pest and vermin extension

Well you have your choices. Kill them for £150 or move them for £2000.

How much is it costing you to stay away from the house ?

We have a hive in our chimney and were told it's illegal to kill them. We did some work with expanding foam around the cracks that were letting them in the house, and have lived with them for a decade with no issues.

There are a ew different people near us to do it for free- beekeepers. Have you posted on local FB group, see if anyone will come and do it?

I am a beekeeper. There are not many/any people who will collect a swarm from the top of a chimney. Working at heights with bees is dangerous and even more so if you cant access it with a ladder. You might get someone to take them if you are prepared to put scaffolding up but I am guessing the scaffolders won't be too happy about that?

Have you also tried here?They should be able to give you local contacts too:

https://www.bbka.org.uk/Pages/Category/swarm-removal

Don’t ask here. Try to find out the number of a local beekeeper or society. They should come out for free and remove them (alive).

If you have a local area community facebook page, you could try asking in there. I have seen this posted in my own community group and they had some offers from beekeepers that were willing to come and move them on safely at no cost. Worth a shot. Sounds like my worst nightmare, hope you get it sorted!

We contacted the local bee group and someone came out within an hour, they put a box thing up and then swarm went in and off he took them - did take a few days.
Worth contacting them as they are all volunteers.

Are you able to open the fireplace up?
We get a swarm in our chimney every year and a bee keeper told us they wouldn’t be able to get them from that high up. He told us to start a small fire and put dry grass/moss on it to create smoke to get them to leave.
Sorry not much use if you can’t open it up.

Just get rid of them for £150. yeh it’s crap but oh well.

0 chance I would pay over 2 grand for something like that.

Sanctimonious iow. And happy to spend other people's money.

Meet the bill or you're a hypocrite. Simple.🤓

You're still wrong on this issue. Just wrong from a high horse

Anotherparkingthread · Yesterday 19:03

Op just get them killed. They are swarming and if they think they're protecting the queen they could hurt you, your children or people passing by.

That's about as far wrong as you could possibly get it. Swarms are incredibly placid, their main aim is to keep the queen safe by surrounding her, until they establish some structural honeycomb. Hardly any leave the swarm and they aren't aggressive, as the colony is extremely vulnerable in the open.

My dad kept bees for 40 years and you can go and knock a swarm into a box and close the lid, wearing no protective gear at all.

Somebody said that it's illegal to kill bees, but sadly, that isn't the case.

Pepsipepsi · Yesterday 22:42
OK slightly off base suggestion but if the chimney is functional can you light small fires (like with paper that won't burn long or hot) and slowly smoke them out to make them leave again through top of chimney? And do a better job of covering the holes whilst they're gone and keep looking online for help.

IME this won't work - we had bees in our kitchen chimney when we moved here, we'd get dozens of bees falling down into the kitchen every day. We thought they were living on the exterior of the flue liner but it turns out there wasn't a liner all the way up in that chimney so we were actually smoking them every time we lit a fire. We had a local beekeeper remove them (and about 4 years worth of smoked honeycomb) when we were taking the chimney down to rebuild it and had a cherry picker on site. So our bees did survive but unless the OP is prepared to put up scaffold/hire a cherry picker and the bees are easily accessible from the top of the chimney and she can find a beekeeper who wants them then unfortunately, killing them is the only reasonable option.