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

[Gotabadfeelingaboutthis]

So long story short but basically on Sunday we had a giant swarm of honeybees land on our house and take up residence in our chimney. Bees were coming into the house via the wall where the electric fire is wired in, windows, everywhere. I have a 7 year old and 12 month old so we packed and left the house. I have spent Sun, Mon and today trying desperately to find someone to come and remove them but because the hive is at the top of a chimney which is bricked up at the bottom (supposedly, though clearly not well since bloody bees are still getting through!) access is obviously an issue.

I have phoned so many people. Lots haven't answered, lots haven't called me back, some have said no. One person has said they can do it in 6 weeks for £2500!!

The noise from the bees is awful, the fact they keep finding their way into the house is even worse. The fact that it means we can't open any windows and the house is currently over 30 degrees is unbearable.

So the only 2 quotes I have had are both in or around the £2000 mark. Yet someone has said they will come and just kill them all for £150.

How can that be right?! Aren't we all meant to be saving the bees? Morally I just can't accept killing them is the right thing to do, but nor do I have a spare £2000 and I need my house back!

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

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.

😆

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

Bit more information here

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.

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 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.

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.

Our neighbours had them removed humanely. I don't know by whom, or how much it cost, but they came with a giant hoover and knocked them into boxes to take away. They definitely didn't kill them. This is rural though.

AHH so you like killing the world with tons of processed food wrapped in shit loads of plastic, support poor farming practices like almond milk (Google what the almond industry is doing to domestic bees!) and probably don't eat honey but waffle down some agave because fuck bats in particular.

This. It's all about access. An easily accessible swarm will be collected for free by a beekeeper. A chimney cavity is not easy to access to collect bees but easy enough to spray with insecticide.

Absolutely do not light a fire, there's a risk of the beeswax igniting...

Even if you get them killed you will still need to have your chimney cleaned out and the chimney pot bee-proofed with gauze, as bees will be attracted to the redundant hive, plus the aforementioned fire risk. So you'd need scaffolding up anyway, which is probably a large part of the £2500 cost of removal.

If it helps, someone in a group I'm in was quoted £8000 to have his chimney hive removed.

Oh god I feel so sorry for you. We had this last year and it was horrendous.
Whole house was shaking with the buzzing there were thousands of them
Insurance and pest control companies refused to help out.
In the end a fantastic beekeeper came ( my husband found him by googling said what others have said that they are not protected and are detrimental to other nectar reliant species. He said the issue is caused by amateur beekeepers who aren't skilled enough to look after bees.He said they were really looking for a new home hadn't formed a hive as that takes several days and he got in touch with the beekeepers association who came and got rid of them.
I really hope you can deal with this. It's actually hard to imagine what it's like.

Does the £150 quote include removing the honeycomb so you're not killing all bees in a 3 mile radius of your house?

If the bees are causing a nuisance and need to be removed, the traditional method is to kill them with an insecticide smoke bomb. If this is done it is vital that the honeycomb is also removed. The insecticide kills the bees and contaminates the comb. Bees are notorious thieves and will steal any unguarded honey and take it back to their nest. As bees forage up to three miles from their hive, any colonies within this distance can steal the contaminated honey, feed it to their grubs and chums with devastating results. One carelessly used insecticide bomb can severely damage or destroy other colonies in a three mile radius. Removing the comb will mean breaking up about 60 pounds of the stuff, sealing it in bee proof containers and incinerating it. A very sticky job. The chimney also needs to have an insect proof cap fitted so prevent bees picking up any residue.

They won't have honeycomb they are displaced meaning the swarm is currently just trying to protect the queen as they are out in the open.

If they do have any honey (which I highly doubt) the amount will be minute.

🤣🤣🤣

Bees! Fire! Ladders! It's all there.

We had this

none of the local bee keepers would go up a height to get them (understandably)

we couldn’t afford to pay for a specialist removal firm

they were coming into the house, on and an even in the children’s beds , one of my daughters got stung and got an infection in her leg

we tried smoking them out for days but they just kept returning

local bee keeper did put a trap on the garage roof near the roof with the chimney , they ignored it

after a few days of hell, a local beekeeper said she wouldn’t blame us if we killed them

in the end we killed them and had fine wire mesh put over the chimney (we don’t use it).

I’d try this.

Sorry op, sounds awful.

I think unfortunately it's going to be a case of killing them, if you can't afford 2k to remove them then there's not a lot of choice

Have you tried father Christmas?

Roughly where in the country are you? I know quite a few beers keepers scattered around the place that would come out to look at how accessible they are (free).

@MackintoshGalore Norfolk

Just to say, we have bees in our cavity wall near the roof and they are swarming right now - it all looks super dramatic (but they stay high up and don't bother us unless a ball of them leaving rests in the garden for half a day) but for 361 days a year you wouldn't know they are there unless you stood watching the airbrick they use with binoculars. It may not be as much of a disaster as you think (though ours don't get into the house unless we open the windows nearest their base during a swarm, I'd definitely investigate further bee-proofing on the fireplace if they are getting into the human areas that way).