Bees in a chimney - a challenge to intrepid beekeepers

[pjmoran]

Hi,

My neighbour has just pointed out that I have some bees in one of my chimneys and I'm not sure what course of action to take. They keep entering one of his chimneys and ending up on his kitchen floor (it's a long description which I'll spare you) and he's keen to get them removed. Any advice would be appreciated on how to deal with this.

I think my options are:

1. Call Environmental Health and have them assess it and find me a solution (which may cost me money)

2. Have my neighbour (who is willing) climb onto the roof and put something into the chimney to kill the bees. I'd rather not do this given what I've heard recently about bee populations. If we chose this does anyone have any suggestions which would kill/remove the bees?

3. Find an intrepid beekeeper who fancied the challenge of coaxing the bees from the chimney, or climbing up to rescue them.

I'd prefer to go for option 3 if anyone was willing to put themselves forward for the challenge, but failing that option 2 may be the likely outcome.

Can anyone make any alternative suggestions or help expand on how any of my 3 options could work out?

Thanks,

Paul

PS: If you fancy the challenge I'm in Long Eaton near Derby/Nottingham...

[Flexmore Farm]

Have you thought of lighting the fire and produce lots of smoke, turning the chimney into a giant smoker, it might make them up and off.

[Steve Rose]

If they have blocked the chimney you could end up with a lot of decorating to do!

[Adam]

Hi,

My neighbour has just pointed out that I have some bees in one of my chimneys and I'm not sure what course of action to take. They keep entering one of his chimneys and ending up on his kitchen floor (it's a long description which I'll spare you) and he's keen to get them removed. Any advice would be appreciated on how to deal with this.

I think my options are:

1. Call Environmental Health and have them assess it and find me a solution (which may cost me money)

2. Have my neighbour (who is willing) climb onto the roof and put something into the chimney to kill the bees. I'd rather not do this given what I've heard recently about bee populations. If we chose this does anyone have any suggestions which would kill/remove the bees?

3. Find an intrepid beekeeper who fancied the challenge of coaxing the bees from the chimney, or climbing up to rescue them.

I'd prefer to go for option 3 if anyone was willing to put themselves forward for the challenge, but failing that option 2 may be the likely outcome.

Can anyone make any alternative suggestions or help expand on how any of my 3 options could work out?

Thanks,

Paul

PS: If you fancy the challenge I'm in Long Eaton near Derby/Nottingham...

I doubt you'll have any luck with Environmental Health.

Putting something in the Chimney will possibly kill the bees, and when other surrounding colonies find the remaining honey, they will come in and collect it to take home to their colonies, so you may (inadvertently) kill a number of the colonies in the area, and (out of interest) are responsible (and liable) for poisoning. The obvious way to stop it, is to seal the chimney afterwards to be completely bee tight. If you can get a pencil through the hole, you'll get bees in.

If you poison them but don't seal it, it will almost certainly become reinfested by a swarm.

Our club will collect from difficult spaces (under roofs etc) provided scaffolding is provided along with a building team to do the grunt work of knocking down any walls, removing tiles etc. We provide them with veils.

Adam

[Chris]

1/ Identify what type of bees they are.

2/ Once they have been identified, decide whether the presence of these bees is utterly inconsequential, or not. They might easily bee a species of stingless bee.

Pity any person who gets worked up at the appearance of a few bees in their kitchen. The logical thing would be for him to block off access to his kitchen - the fact that bees are possibly nesting in the chimney is nowt much to worry about.

Anyone poisoning these bees should really know what they are doing. Other bees in the area will possibly rob out the honey form these dead bees which will be contaminated with poison, and this contaminated honey could be carried back to local bee colonies and then poison them also. Then, local beekeeper wakes up to find dead colonies, who then contacts Government Bee Inspector to find out why they died. Poisoning bees is a job for an approved pest control operative.

Lastly, and if they are honeybees, feral colonies do not tend to live for long, of the order of a couple of years max.

[Adam]

Poisoning bees is a job for an approved pest control operative..

And their risk assessments are unlikely to run to them working of ladders, nor the builder (beekeeper?) needed to make the chimney bee tight. You will almost certainly need scaffolding.

Adam