Just watched a lovely swarm of bees just zoom over and after a few hours have decided that my redundant chimney is going to be there home.

This is the second time we’ve had this problem and I’m not keen on killing them as
A. I don’t live here, it’s a second home)
B. They don’t bother us, they just get on with their little lives.
C. I’m rather against killing more of them when there is so much concern over them at the moment.
Anyone any advice on how best I could deal with them, chimney is about 8 metres high and needs repointing, how they manage to get in.

Is there a good time to wait to let them reswarm and set off to colonise somewhere else?

Or do I have to just have to get the pest Control out again?

Redundant, can it just be closed off so they can’t get in the house, and just leave them to it?

Don’t know about France, but UK has rules about how to handle removal of bees. Pesticides etc are restricted if not banned as the bees can spread it elsewhere and it gets into honey and the food chain. Not to mention bees are vital to pollination.

Usually you can get someone to safely remove them, and bee keepers may be interested in relocating them. Again, don’t know about France though.

We normally relocate them, but in this case they’re too high up to get at.

I’ve a similar situation with one of the properties I look after and two more properties where bees are within a roof and the other where they are nesting behind weatherboard cladding.

I’ve spoken to a number of bee keepers about these hives and they have all responded by informing me that removal from all of these places will almost certainly mean destroying and killing the colonies and the probability that within a few years, they will be back as there will be one who was from the original hive would return to recolonise their original home.

Unless they are proving to be a real problem to the residents, not even pest controllers are keen to go through the process of destroying and removing the hive, not least of which because they’ll undoubtedly return, but also because of the complexity of actually getting to the hive to ensure it’s completely removed. Bee’s prefer to nest vertically, apparently, which makes it a process of dismantling a lot of the buildings to gain access.

There are also, again apparently, two main types of bees who are either quite placid, or rather aggressive. The colony who are behind the old Elm weatherboarding are certainly of the latter variety, as confirmed by the painter, who has tried on a number of occasions, to re paint the gable end of the house and weatherboarding where they are and couldn’t get within 5 feet of the entrance without being attacked. The other two colonies are much more approachable and don’t seem to mind us being close to them.

We’ve decided to leave them all alone and have filed each case as too difficult to deal with now, plus, they are good for the local ecosystem.

As above, make sure they can’t get into the house, block up the chimney in the redundant fireplace with a ventilation grill with insect screen as they’ll appreciate some flow of air from beneath.

they will be back as there will be one who was from the original hive would return to recolonise their original home.

Its not so much that – a swarm happens when a colony is outgrowing its current home – the colony creates a new queen and the two queens go their separate ways – i think its the new queen that gets to keep the current hive, it the old one goes off seeking pastures new. The swarm sends out scouts looking for suitable spots – something like a beehive – something with enough room but a small protectable entrance.

The other thing through is – those scouts like all bees have a great sense of smell. If theres a space where bees have colonised before it’ll smell of beeswax and honey.

So if you’ve had bees in any structure before you’re likely to get colonies seek it out again – partly because its a size and shape that suits them and partly because any colony in the surrounding 28 square miles looking for a home the can smell it.