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[Ed Woods]

I had a call to look at a swarm above a bedroom window at a hotel.

Upon arrival turns out to be a Grade II listed stately home - the bees are about 40 feet above ground living within two feet thick walls - the only way to access them is via the flat roof on this part of the building or via the ceiling in the room or a scaffold tower.

The bees are entering the walls via at least 3 seperate holes some 20 feet apart - which makes me think there are at least 3 seperate colonies up there and they must have been there for years except nobody had noticed them before. The bees were fanning to cool down so they were noticeable from ground level.

The owners have already called pest control who said nothing could be done and call a bee keeper!.

Removing them is well beyond my capabilities and my first thought was they should just be left there as extraction would be far too dangerous.

What options do the owners have?

 

[itma]

Someone on here has an avatar of a suited beekeeper on a 'cherry-picker' up around someone's chimneys.

Sadly, I guess the value of the bees is insignificant compared to the hotel (loss of) income, building value and even the access cost 40 feet up the wall.

 

[Chris Luck]

Just explain to the owners that at that height they are no problem and won't harm the building, in fact I would suggest they use it as a plus point in their blurb, make them a feature.

BTW. they could be one colony, I've seen single colonies in stone walls with three or four entrances a good distance apart, in fact I often close the entrances that are bothering people and leave the highest or least problematic one open.

Chris

 

[VEG]

I would say leave alone as you would have a hell of a job finding where they are in the walls. Also being a listed building adds to the problems. At that height they wont cause any probs to customers. If they are comming in through open windows upstairs then a fine mesh would be the easy alternative, to them being "dealt with".