Bees Nest!

Hi


This is my first post, hopefully I have submitted it correctly...


I have just bought a detached house in the countryside near Mauron Brittany. The house has a bees nest through a crack in the pointing about 8 metres up the wall.


Has anyone any advice on how to remove or cease access to the nest? Obviously it isn't something i'd tackle myself but I need to know if there are any restrictions I need to be aware of and also if anyone knows of where I can find someone who is able to close the bees nest.


Thanks. Paul.

Thanks to you all. The only reason I have considered getting the nest relocated/removed is because I got stung on one of the two occasions I have visited the property. However they do, on the whole seem to just mind their own busines.

Also the house has been empty for 10 years so perhaps they wern't used to folk being around in the garden. I have my first week there next week and I will make an assessment then. Paul

Hi,

Some beekeeper would be happy to come collect the swarm (for free), but he might be unable to do it because of the location. Ask around you, in the village/town if anyone knows an "apiculteur". Or Google "apiculteur" along with the name of your "département".

I don't think the firemen will do it. They are likely to redirect you to an expensive private company, as they don't do this kind of jobs anymore.

BUT I agree with everybody here on the uselessness of destroying a nest of peacefull animals, that moreover are an endangered species that needs our help.

In my grandfather house, bees have been living in an unused chimney for at least eighty years. My father was born there, I have lived there, all the children of the family have spent vacations there and nobody ever had any problem with these animals. We knew they were there, but they were so quiet that they were out of our mind.

Over the years, we had to destroy wasps nests, because they are known to be agressive, and also hornets nests, because we were afraid of their painful sting (although in Germany they are considered non agressive). But we never, even for a moment, think of dislodging the bees.

Sometimes (once every ten years) we called a local bee keeper to come pick up a swarm that had left the colony. But it was only for the sake of being helpful to someone. Most of the times, we never knew when a swarm had decided to leave.

If you don't know bees and are afraid of them, you need to know that they will never attack you like the wasps do (unless you are flailing wildly less than one meter far from their nest).

In our garden, there is small tree, quite low, that is always full of bees at a time of the summer. Well, that's where we chose to set our garden table, because of the shade. We are used to have lunch there, but no one was ever bothered by the bees. They are busy around the flowers, not around our meals.

Wasps and hornets eat sugar and meat, and can be a problem. But bees harvest pollen only. They might be interested in drinking sugar water or water if they are far from their nest, but that's all.

I repeat : we never had a problem. My wife is even used to gardening very close to a lavender bush that is always full of bees. She doesn't wave at them. She minds her business and so do they. She was never stung.

Let them be. :)

Pompiers used to do it and they had a centrifuge to clean the honey- used to pay them in wine. The bees used to make a nest in our chimney and with babies in the house we considered the risk unwise. Going back years mind you!

Leave them alone, they are not dangerous and bees are declining everywhere, they are part of our eco system and much needed for pollination of our plants and flowers. When we lived in France was also had wasps and frelons, we left those alone too and they never bothered us.

Hi, we have had a solitary bees nest in our wall for a couple of years, they are no bother to us at all. We also have a small bees nest inside a magazine on our terrace, it's amazing!

If it is a bother, find a bee keeper to collect them, you can't do anything yourself. Maybe if you made a bee hotel in your garden they will move there next year?!

FAQ's - International Bee Research Association

Hi

We have a bees nest in our outside wall too. It's been there for years and they are really no bother. If it was wasps or hornets I'd worry - but bees keep to themselves pretty much. As they seem to be in decline maybe do nothing??