We were contacted by Eddie who lives in Dunleer, Co Louth on the 20th Nov 2023 in relation to a honey bee removal. He explained that his flat roof extension at the back of his property was being reroofed and it was discovered a colony of honey bees had set up home there. With the banging and hammering the bees were getting agitated and trying to attack the roofing contractor. We wouldn’t ordinarily perform a removal this late in the year but in this situation, there was no choice. The roof needed the repairs immediately.
On Sat the 25th we called out. That morning was very cold and there had been a strong frost overnight so we decided to leave the removal until that Monday when temperatures where forecast to be over 8 degrees. We did do a bit of recognisance with our thermal imager to try and judge the scale of the colony. The heat signature showed it was fairly sizable. The roof itself is a single-story flat roof, so access would be gained using a step ladder.
To attempt a removal like this we needed to take a few extra things into consideration. Temperature was going to be a big issue. Pushing the removal back a few days did help with that but we would still need to be very prepared and work fast. The roof being repaired wasn’t going to be a problem so we were allowed to open as much as we needed in one go. Food would be the next issue. The vac box set up would need plenty of honey stores already in it before we started and luckily, we still had some frames not extracted at the time.
We started from the corner of the roof working back towards the heat source. Once opened up we worked gently and as quickly as we could. Taking each comb away slowly and removing the bees. We allowed the remaining bees to cluster on to the next comb. One by one we worked to the far side of the colony and quickly removed the last of the bees.
With the bees safely in the box we closed it up, opened the air vents and covered it with a jacket in the back of the van to keep warm.
Back on the roof we started disconnecting our equipment and cleaning up. Within a half an hour of putting the bees in the van there was a huge temperature drop. I was thankful the job went as smoothly as it did. Honey bees freeze to death at +7 degrees and while they weren’t happy with us removing them at around 9 degrees they would have been fighting to the death if we took much longer.
Through the inspection lid we could see and hear how active the bees were in their new home. To give them the best chance of survival we kept the box in our house for 2 days before re-locating them to one of our apiaries.
Big thanks to Eddie. It still remains to be seen whether they will survive the winter months but this colony has been given the best possible chance by him contacting us.
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