Sticky situations

Recently, we took on a rare but crucial job after receiving a call from a frustrated homeowner. She had reached out to pest control about bees in her roof, but they refused to assist. That's when she contacted us for help. As she plans to install a new roof soon, it's essential to address the bee situation first. We doubt the roofers would appreciate dealing with bees while stripping and fitting the new roof.

Typically, we avoid jobs that might risk property damage, but this situation was different .

Upon speaking with the homeowner, we learned that the bees had swarmed and settled in the same roof.

We arrived unsure of how things would unfold but were pleasantly surprised to find the bees gentle and well-tempered. This was a relief for the neighbors enjoying a bank holiday in their gardens and for someone nearby fitting a new roof.

We started with the most active colony. Once we located there location within the roof, we began carefully cutting into a section of the roof.

When removing a section we found a large amount of bees only recently started fresh new wax we began carefully extracting the wax and scooping the bees in search of the queen.

Before long, we spotted the queen and secured her in a queen clip. Once she was inside the transport box, the bees started marching directly into the box.

Next, it was time to address the second colony. Although the entrance to this nest seemed less active than the first, we were confident there would still be bees and plenty of resources left.

This one was a bit trickier. As we made an incision in the roof, we found ourselves in a sticky situation, making it more challenging to film the process with sticky hands.

This was the original colony before they swarmed. We carefully extracted the honey, removing around 14 kilograms in total.

Next, we began removing the brood (eggs and larvae) and transferred them into our wooden frames, placing them into a transport box.

Since many bees were clustered in the roof and we hadn't spotted the queen, we continued our efforts until we noticed the bees marching into the box, indicating the queen was inside.

The bees are now in quarantine before joining our apiary.

Follow our TikTok page to see the clips from this blog. 🐝

https://vm.tiktok.com/ZGe4VFn7v/