joyce

bees in chimney

Rate this Entry
An acquaintance had a swarm of bees arrive in her chimney last summer. She has a neighbour who keeps bees but he insisted they were not his! Her bungalow has a fairly high chimney but she offered to pay for scaffolding if anyone wanted to try to retrieve the bees. I mentioned around but there were no takers! I suggested that if she wait until the colder weather when the bees were clustering, put a petrol-soaked rag into the top of the chimney and seal it up that might do the trick. Today she is reporting that she had the slaters out and one of them climbed up his ladder as quietly as he could but the top of the chimney has a slate covering it with two small holes and as soon as he tried to remove the slate the bees heard the vibration and noise and came out to greet him. Not a good experience at the top of a ladder! Naturally the slaters are not prepared to return and the slate covering the chimney seems to be fairly well anchored down. It's possible the bees may die out before the end of the winter but she isn't at-all happy at having them in her chimney going into another season. Has anyone got any ideas (non-facetious!) about how to deal with this?

Submit "bees in chimney" to Digg Submit "bees in chimney" to del.icio.us Submit "bees in chimney" to StumbleUpon Submit "bees in chimney" to Google

Categories
Uncategorized

Comments

  1. Jon's Avatar
    Feral colonies usually die out due to varroa but if the colony is still alive at this point of the winter there is a good chance it will survive another summer. Your acquaintance could get a local beekeeper to put a bait hive in the garden which could attract a swarm over the summer.
    The problem is that there could be a lot of honey and wax in the chimney which could melt or drip and cause damage.
    The other issue is that even if the colony dies out a new swarm will likely be attracted in by the old brood comb in the chimney.

    I don't think there is an easy way to remove a colony like this and clean the chimney properly without spending a lot of money.
  2. gavin's Avatar
    I'm not sure what I can add - Jon has more or less covered it. I might be a bit more optimistic (or pessimistic?) that the bees will die out. Most colony losses are in March (even April), as stores run out and their need for them rockets. Keeping an eye on them in April is wise, and if there is no activity on a warm day when her neighbour's bees are very active then you could suspect that they have died out. That would be the time to seal up any spaces to prevent a recurrence. Into May and other colonies might be throwing off swarms again, risking reoccupation.

    As the regards the neighbour's claims, swarms do sometimes arrive in the vicinity of established colonies. Something seems to attract them. The beekeeper ought to have marked his queens, so he should be able to tell if he has let a swarm go.

    Once a swarm has properly set up home it becomes very difficult to shift it without physically cutting it out. Some have had success by forcing the bees to travel through a small box with another colony and inserting a one-way valve, but you can't do this at height.