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A swarm of honey bees has settled in the soffits of my roof (last week) and are busy bringing up the next generation of bees. I love bees but don't really want to share the house with them. Our local 'bee man' has explained that in order to remove them we'll need to take off a portion of the roof (with scaffolding etc) at a cost of around £3k. I guess we get to keep the honeycomb though.
Are there any other less-expensive options that don't involve killing the bees?
I thought the advice was to wait until they move on?
Get a bear?
I thought the advice was to wait until they move on?
If they're honey bees I'm not sure that's the case, I think they stay put for generations, masonry bees etc though I think move on year after year.
I am not an apiarist mind.
Are they bothering you? I had bumble bees in my cellar last year. We coexisted until they moved on.
that don’t involve killing the bees?
Not that I'm aware of after last years wasp nest in our roof.
Are you one hundred percent certain that the inside of the soffit can't be accessed from the loft?
Edit : What problem are they causing - noisy?
Edit : What problem are they causing – noisy?
If I recall from years back when my parents had a similar issue, it's not the bees, it's the wasps, flies, ants and rodents who like to eat them and the honey.
I have a friend who keeps honey bees. Local FB page reported a bunch of bee's in their tree yesterday, they were his and he came and collected them 🙂
they were his
How did he know? They all look the same to me.
They must have answered to their names
Just leave them bee.
Came on thinking this thread was about a follow up song by UB40?
We had honey bees for three years, never a problem until the chimney flashing started to let water into the bedroom. Honey bees don't move on and as we needed to sort out what turned out to be the bees' access they had to go
Specialist pest controllers (generally beekeepers in their spare time) will vacuum the bees up from inside the loft using a special bee vacuum which works well in a confined tapered space like eaves
They know when they've got the queen because the strays all gravitate to the area around the vacuum
It isn't cheap, quotes from £400-£900 two years ago
Contrary to popular belief, you can destroy bees but most companies won't because they risk bees taking chemicals into other hives and destroying that population as well, which can be illegal
Other bees and wasps are annual visitors and less of a building maintenance problem
Do you have a Hoover and a Go-pro? The Go-pro is most important 🙂 or you could use this bloke, he will travel https://gcbfandps.com/
Thanks for the thoughts. No, can’t access the bees from inside the loft. It’s the removing the roof but that costs the money. I asked why we couldn’t let them be(e) and it’s because a) they produce 20,000 new bees in a matter of weeks. The swarm dies so you have thousands of dead bees but ever-increasing amounts of honeycomb that attracts other insects and pests. So probably best they come out.
Does a section of roof need to be removed? Will removing a section of facia and soffit not give access more easily and it'll be a sight easier to reinstate? Doesn't help with the cost of scaffold (tower?) though
Use to be a part time bee keeper. Try contacting a local bee keeping group. They will likely come and have a look with more ideas on how to access them. There must be a decent amount of space for them in there so should be able to access without damaging the roof.
Just leave them bee.
Dammit too slow!