How Do I Remove a Honey Bee Hive I Have in My House?
Once a honey hive becomes established in the wall or soffit of a house, the bees store tremendous amounts of honey in the comb they have constructed. This can cause problems of staining, dripping honey, etc. if the bees should die or are killed, and it is illegal to kill them, because they are so beneficial. There are two ways of removing the hives. One way is to open up the wall and go in and get them, and the other is to funnel them out. Any work such as this should not be attempted by a home owner, but should be done by a beekeeper familiar with the process.
Funneling the bees out as shown above is done by making a screen funnel which is placed over the entrance into the house, so bees can leave, but cannot get back in. A small hive containing a queen and a few bees is put next to the opening in the house. The bees can't get back into the house, so they join up with the bees in the hive and over a period of 4-10 weeks (depending on the time of year it's done) the bees are removed, and all the honey and pollen in the hive in the house has been used up by the bees. The hive is then removed and the entrance into the house is sealed. .
This picture is of a rare hive which was built on the outside of the soffit of a home. It is used to demonstrate what is inside the wall of a house when a hive is established there.
A hive, such as this one, can be removed by opening up the wall or soffit, going in, vaccuuming up the bees and cutting out all the comb (the white material) with it's honey and pollen. This can usually be done in one day.
Below are three pictures of hives that were found in various locations in buildings
Hive in the ceilng of a barn
Hive above the insulation in a garage
Hive in the wall of a house. Because of it's location, it had to be removed from inside
