£1000 paid to remove bees from roof 2 weeks ago. We now have bees again.

Oh OP! That sounds so stressful and expensive.

Did you discuss the situation with him and assure yourself that he was reputable and was insured specifically for the type of work he was proposing?

Did you ensure that he had experience of ‘cut outs’ and, most importantly, carries adequate public liability insurance?

Did you agree a price for the job before commencing work and ask for references from previous customers?

This site has a list of some organisations and companies who may be able to help with established honey bee colony removals from buildings.

Erm, Contact them and tell them they didn't do their job properly

I agree they’re protected. Are you sure he’s a beekeeper?

Legal Status: Bees are not protected under the Wildlife and Countryside Act or the Animal Welfare Act. However, killing them with DIY pesticides is highly discouraged and often illegal based on how the chemicals are classified.

thats a lot of money to pay out. I assume most was on scaffolding. If he wasn’t going to do the repair he should have told you that you need to get it filled in. I had bees in a previous house, and they came back every year, so it’s important to ensure they can’t get in.

No, insurance doesn't cover bee removal as they are not classed as pests

If there’s not 3 different people/ companies involved it’s a con and a waste of your money.
You need someone for scaffolds. Someone to open & close the roof. Then a beekeeper - you can probably get one for free as long as other 2 are taken care of.

Look for UK bee removers.
They have a map and people fully insured and trained.

Our building insurance offers up to £500. - less than 10% of the quotes we've had.

I keep bees. If they are difficult to remove and causing damage I would consider leaving ant powder near the entrance. Don’t underestimate the increasing weight of the honey and the other pests attracted to it. I remove bees locally for free, but won’t climb up buildings - standing on a chair is my limit.

As far as I know you shouldn’t kill bees

Surely your buildings insurance would cover ethical removal and reinstate the roof properly. No one wants a swarm of bees in their property, but bees are valuable, are under threat and it hurts my heart to read about poisoning them. If he didn’t remove the queen, that’s down to him, but from every thing you’ve posted, you’ve got the wrong man for the job and he sounds an idiot. I was going to write he sounds a cunt, but I might be over invested in the bees.

No, you are not allowed to poison bees, as doing so manually or incorrectly is highly restricted and often illegal. While most bee species (including honeybees and bumblebees) are not technically classified as legally protected species in the UK, the laws governing chemical use make poisoning them a legal minefield.

OPs case was more complicated due to the position of the bees nest

Well, he is a beekeeper, not a roofer.... so Im not really sure what you expected?

That's cheap!

We've got honey bees in the roof at work. The cheapest quote we have is around £6k; if we want a guarantee the bees won't come back it's £8k.

To rehome them safely we need:

1. Scaffolding (and a scaffolder who doesn't mind getting close to the bees)
2. A roofer who can take the roof apart and put it back (again they need to be okay with bees)
3. A bee expert to remove the nest, clean up the honeycomb etc.

It may be in the cavity walls too, in which case we need a builder too.

You can kill honey bees, but you have to make sure you have a reputable place because if you use the wrong poisons then they can take it back to other hives and you get poisoned honey. But the reputable people say "these bees can be saved so we won't poison them".

Edited to add that we've contacted local beekeepers and they'll happily take them for free if they're swarming outside the nest, but won't either open up nor fix the roof afterwards,

Then he should make it clear, and perhaps combine his services with a roofer

And here too.
That includes swarms in roof and cavity spaces, up trees and in chimney spaces.
I think OP’s ‘beekeeper’ is a con quite frankly.

We had wasps in our kitchen extension roof last year. We could hear them in the walls. They weren’t really bothering us so we left them alone and they’ve gone this year.

Beekeepers around here collect for free

£1000????? Good grief!! The bee man should come back and do the job properly for free.

Before you do that try the ant powder. It was tricky and involved ladders, long gloves etc... do it at dusk when they are settled for the night. You don't need much as they will eventually track it into the queen, once the queen is gone the rest die or leave

Also, not all bees are the same as far as being great pollinators. Modern honey bees are not all great pollinators as they go from single flower source to their hive (aka your roof) and they are not endangered. Obviously no one wants to destroy a bee swarm but you may not have any other choice.

And everyone saying leave it, they swarm off - well that's not true. Nor is it true that a beekeeper can just 'remove them' - not when they're deep in your roof they can't!

Thing is the bee keeper has also likely broken the law. If you poison bees you need to seal off all exit points, as otherwise the bees escape. And it can cause a huge biohazard, impact other bees and get in our food chain. Not doing it properly can be Really big fines for you and him

Depends where the bees are hanging out as to whether they can be removed free of charge

A swarm on a tree branch - easy
A massive hive that has spread throughout your cavity wall - no

I had wasps and I think the removal was free. Or maybe very cheap - I was definitely asked whether they were bees or wasps as removing bees was crazy money as they couldn't be poisoned and so had to be carefully enticed away, whereas wasps were really easy as they just murdered them.

But I've definitely read posts from people who keep bees offering to collect any unwanted swarms, I believe free of charge. Would it be worth posting on facebook to see if you have anyone locally, OP? Or is that what you did and they've just come straight back?

No it's not, but noone with half a brain cell makes that amount of mess of a repair. I was referring to the fact it he had made a better job of his 'repair' the bees would have less likely to have gotten back into the roof.

A bee keeper is not a builder or a roofer to be fair