bees in chimney

2twometers

We should be having our chimneystack repaired at some stage in the summer which is involving scaffolding,replacing bricks,replacing at least one pot and re-pointing as needed.Having got it all organised we just noticed at the weekend that we have bees going in and out of one of the un-used chimney pots,but can hear nothing from inside the house which may give us a clue as to where they are within the stack.And no sign of any bees in the house,or at least no more than ususal.Could anyone give us any advice about how to proceed? Obviously we don't want anyone working to be stung,but with bees being so important to the environment just rushing in with a pest controller to destroy them seems a bad idea.
We have four pots,one chimney in use with a liner and woodburning stove,the three others are all capped with ventilation but blocked off inside with grills to ventilate the fireplaces no longer in use.
We are waiting to hear back from our chimney sweep with any suggestions.
Thankyou for any advice or ideas

Section62

2twometers said:

We should be having our chimneystack repaired at some stage in the summer which is involving scaffolding,replacing bricks,replacing at least one pot and re-pointing as needed.Having got it all organised we just noticed at the weekend that we have bees going in and out of one of the un-used chimney pots,but can hear nothing from inside the house which may give us a clue as to where they are within the stack.And no sign of any bees in the house,or at least no more than ususal.Could anyone give us any advice about how to proceed? Obviously we don't want anyone working to be stung,but with bees being so important to the environment just rushing in with a pest controller to destroy them seems a bad idea.
We have four pots,one chimney in use with a liner and woodburning stove,the three others are all capped with ventilation but blocked off inside with grills to ventilate the fireplaces no longer in use.
We are waiting to hear back from our chimney sweep with any suggestions.
Thankyou for any advice or ideas

If they are honeybees (odds are if they are up high and there's lots of them) then contact your local group of the British Beekeepers Association, or use the BBA swarm collector locator.

They will advise if they are honeybees, and whether they can be relocated.

TELLIT01

I was about to suggest the same actions as @Section62.  I would be surprised if they are able to remove the bees, but may be able to advise on the best time to have the work done with minimal effect on the bees.

2twometers

thanks for advice,I have contacted the local beekeeping group to see whether there are any beekeeping chimneysweeps locally who may be able to help.It would be great if there was a stage in the bee cycle where the work could be done without bothering us or bees too much so we'll have to wait and see.

Section62

2twometers said:

thanks for advice,I have contacted the local beekeeping group to see whether there are any beekeeping chimneysweeps locally who may be able to help.It would be great if there was a stage in the bee cycle where the work could be done without bothering us or bees too much so we'll have to wait and see.

The beekeepers don't have to be chimneysweeps, most often they aren't.

The beekeepers 'rescue' swarms of honeybees to transfer to one of their own hives.  With a swarm there's usually a queen, so it is a case of finding the queen and putting her in a box.  The rest of the bees look for her and go into the box of their own accord.

AIUI if the queen isn't accessible they use another queen - some of the swarm decide the other queen is a better bet and switch loyalty, joining her in the box for relocation.  I think the beekeeper normally then repeats the process, each time removing percentage of the swarm/nest, over a period of days.

So in theory a beekeeper could attract and relocate the majority of the bees in your chimney, although some (including the original queen) will probably stay put.  If what is left isn't enough to sustain themselves (and especially if the queen dies) the remainder would probably move on by themselves, or else if you have to have the nest destroyed then at least the number being killed would be much reduced.

However, the beekeeper will usually only do a relocation if there is something in it for them... i.e. gaining an extra hive's worth of productive bees.  If they aren't honeybees, or the number they can catch is too small, or if they have a bad temperament, then destruction is probably your only remaining option. 

Unlike wasps, honeybees will stay active in the same nest all year round.  So it isn't even as though you can wait until winter and do the work then without harming live bees.  In which case destruction is probably kinder than sealing the chimney with a live nest in situ, as the latter would involve them slowly starving.

twopenny

No idea if this is any good but came up first in a search 
https://swarmcatcher.co.uk/honey-bees-in-chimney/
And if there's one there maybe more and something in your area so worth having a rummage.

youth_leader

We went into our spare room to find masses of dying worker honey bees on the floor. 

We got the local beekeeper round and he said the chimney was too difficult to access due to the height of our roofs, we had an old railwaystation.  He said we'd have to wait for the hive to swarm - and not to light the fire as the wax would cause a chimney fire.  He recommended it was more humane to hoover up the dying bees which was awful, I cried my eyes out. 

Niv

Do you know how established the bees are? If they have been around a while then one issue would be that even when the bees are gone there will be stores that will eventually leak which could cause you some issues unless you are able to clean the chimney once they have been removed.

2twometers

thanks for all advice/suggestions,I'm learning so much about bees!
We have only just started noticing them so are assuming they are recently arrived to set themselves up.
It is a tall chimney which needs scaffolding to get to the pots and top courses of brickwork,very helpful friend with a drone did a quick survey for our repairs about a month ago but that was before weather warmed up so maybe they were already tucked up inside.
A local beekeeper has told us the only thing to do in our situation would be pest control,but we're tryng to get as many suggestions as we can in the hope they can be saved.Certainly not going to suffocate them.
Probably a bit too hopeful but we were thinking a sweep/keeper would be able to work out which of the internally blocked off flue/chimneys they were in and put a smoke source in behind the corresponding air vent-but then we don't know where the chimneys are blocked off and may well end up smoking ourselves out instead.
What a shame they've chosen our chimney,or according to some of the on-line information,what a shame our chimney is in such a state to let them in.

Niv

If scaffold is required for access then your beekeeper contact is probably correct. Most of those that will go and collect swarms are hobbyists and are not trained for working at heights nor insured for such work. I am happy to get a swarm out a tree etc but would be unable to do much with a swarm in a chimney. 

Worth seeing if you can get as second opinion as some hobby beekeepers are very keen and have varying gadgets for swarm collection (such as a bee vac) so there may be an option.. but I do feel it may be a lost cause.