So I thought it was a regular Tuesday…
Everything was humming along…
Really humming.
Little did we know that a honey bee hive was swirling and working and storing
above our heads!
Enter All Bee Inc…
to the rescue!
The saw came out... and down went part of our soffitt…
Mothers hide your children…
Grab your epi pen too while you are at it
Apparently…In our soffit was over 100 Lbs of honey and comb
not to mention 100’s of thousands of workers and one big butt queen!
This hive is over 5 feet long….Oy.
double Oy.
Dripping with honey…
Got toast?
Yes. They were removed…Yes I am still in shock.
They found another one on the other side of the house.
oh goody.
49 comments:
Wow! industrious little things bees. It seems a shame to distroy all their hard work your eaves look the perfect spot hehehe...
Thanks for the pics.
That is wild! Could you hear the little buzzers?
Lisa
Wow! You could bottle all that and pay for Christmas!
WOW!!! I still can't believe it! I hope you were able to save some of the honey to bottle and sell to help pay the beekeeper that came out. EEKS... xo
wow that's crazy!! did you get to keep the honey??
also... i know this might be a silly question, but when they "removed" the bees... do they take them somewhere or do they go to heaven? eeek
Well...unfortunately these were wild bees...africanized...and unlike the commercial honey bees that are slowly dying out to some virus or honey bee plague, these ones are ALL over the place and a dime a dozen. They are finding homes in homes around here (instead of tees). So...remove, sadly, means the ultimate remove. Bee heaven, Jenna.
Plus the honey was most likely from pepper trees. I tasted it. NOT so yummy. But we did save some.
Sad...I know.
Oh no they didn't! Holy cow...that is insane:0
*faints*
OMG. Well, a shame that the honey is not so tasty.
i am freaking out!!!
that is crazy.
i know this sounds stupid...
but i didn't think we were living in
'bee country' down here.
SWEET post!!
xxxx
This is amazing! Right there IN your house! Thanks for sharing your great photos. I've never seen anything like this. Wow!
Holy Moly!!!! Fascinating and frightening all at the same time. How do you harvest the honey? **blows sticky kisses** Deb
YIKES! My first thought was, "I sure hope they weren't the africanized ones" and then I saw in your comment here that they are. Drats!
Hopefully you won't get any new ones moving in any time soon!
Holy Cow!!! I mean Holy Beeswax!!! I'd be in shock, too...thanks for the close-up look at the reality of it all...and now another...Holy Wow!!!
Oh MY Goodness Linda,Honey on toast is my fave thing at the moment! won't you send a comb my way?
On second thought,having just read your comment,maybe not! Amazing thing to happen any how:-)
oh my gosh...but really sort of cool...no?
we have one in a neighborhood tree that is soooo fascinating.
OK, maybe not so good in your soffet
but, really....wow
x..x
Oh my gosh, that is amazing. I've got to show our children because we had wasps in our siding (we could hear them inside when spending time in our den) thought THAT was cool (not for the house, but you know) but bees?!? so much cuter!
Amazing photos! These little beasts have been busy... It's a shame that the honey wasn't the tasty orange blossom kind. With all the groves in your area, who would have thought the bees would choose yucky Brazillian Pepper trees. Those nasty plants are doing their best to take over!!!
Jane (artfully graced)
I'm speechless!!!! Could you use the honey!!?? We had three nests removed this year..., but they were in the beginning stages.
The man across the street from me has a beehive...the bees go after his grown son.and come and enjoy all my flowers
Your photos are great and the garden looks wonderul. Somday a visit!!!
good grief!
that dern big butt queen!
this is NOT
~~lime in the coconut~~
yumminess!
:-0
yikees!
ASAP in the morning
i am going bee*hunting
along our soffit...
{{ still--
all in all--
the photos
are amazing! }}
did you keep the honey? that is one way of bee keeping. Leave it to you! All kidding aside I haven't even seen a honey bee for the last 3 years. Too bad you couldn't just move them into those bee houses and collect your honey. they are obviously in love with your yard!
I just read all the comments. Africanized bees are scary and too bad the honey isn't good.
So....when life gives you beehives....make honey!!!! (Wish it was better honey....weird bees.) Well done! And you were brave to take those pictures!!!!
what a bittersweet story! how did you discover them?
growing up my grandparents had honey hives. nothing is better than fresh honey AND honey comb.
Mercy, what a beautiful, sticky, scary mess. I imagine that really was a loud hum :-)
I've never heard of anything like this!!!
And yes, what's become of the honey? I hope the hassle paid off with at least a little something sweet???
PS- and speaking of sweet, thank you for your very lovely encouragement with our new endeavors!
We had some buzzing little visitor a few years ago, although not quite as many as you did!
So glad no one was hurt!
xo
Brooke
That is wild, were you able to contact an apiary to transfer and save the hive? It's a shame if there was no choice but to destroy them with the honey bees being in such danger as they are. Well if nothing else, I hope you were able to keep some of the honey comb. Natural Raw Honey (unprocessed) is mecininal and so good for you!
Sorry for the typo, that was supposed to be medicinal.
Well, I should have read all the comments first. I never heard of Africanized Bees? What or how exactly do they get that way. Is the honey just not good because it has an inferior taste, or is the nutritional value lower too?
WOWOWOWOW linda, this is amazing. seeing those combs on your house gave me the chills! the photos are actually stunning.
i 'disturbed' bees overhead while i was hammering nearby and out they came. i hightailed it as fast as i've ever moved!
nice to be stopping by, linda. xoxo
Wow! What a shocker! Your post reminded me that I have to ask my mom to bring over some orange blossom honey when she hops the pond for Christmas. Thanks!
I'm going downstairs to make myself a nice cup of coffee with some toast and honey. Yummy! It seems anything will inspire me to eat these days!
I had to remove the honey and
bees in NC. inside the house where the well was, scary, but your hive was huge. Isn't it an experince?
Did you save the honey?/
yvonne
did you get to taste some of the honey?
Oh my goodness....crazy. I think we need to investigate around here. I know we are prone to hornets, in fact every time we light a fire, they come down the chimney into the FR.
Too bad the honey is no good. : (
Happy turkey day!
omg. i can't believe this. how crazy. sooo, perhaps you can bottle it and give it to your peeps as holiday gifts! they'll be quite impressed when you tell them you did this just for them.
Oh my gosh! Who knew:) I sure hope you do enjoy all that honey!!!!!
Holy crap!!! Gives me the shivers. Loved the book,the live version? Not so much! Your poor house.
On a more cheerful note, the new header looks great. Always happy to see a glimpse of the "big butt" creation!
OMGosh!! I am panicked and fascinated at the same time! I love bees, just don't wish to have them in my soffits! How did you find them (obviously they had been there for a while!) Could you hear them from inside? Outside? Was the bee-man impressed by 5 feet long hives? I am!!
See... told 'ya- fascinated!
Yes that's my question too-how did you happen to figure out they were there? were there bees hanging out in the kitchen? were they drinking all the milk in the fridge at night?
sneaky little buggers....
a five foot honeycomb is super impressive!
Here is the story. We had NO clue we were a part of a honey manufacturing process. No noises...no hums...no bees (that we noticed).
We had some work done on a soffit, because we had to pull some ivy down from the house (WHO in the H planted that you ask...Me...dumbly)...down came some ivy...down came some soffitt. Which we had someone repair.
He quietly mentioned that we may have honey bees somewhere under our barrel tile roof. I didn't see a fire....and slowly...ever so slowly tried to figure out where they were. Then I noticed some bees. Not tons...just a few buzzing around a corner of our roof.
Decided to have someone check it out...and lo and behold....
HONEY!
Please tell me you were able to salvage that honey!!!
Linda- Your experience reminded me of getting the same bee/honey surprise within an exterior wall of our house. We could actually hear the bees humming through the drywall. Bees in Florida are big business because of the citrus groves. If they come back, you may find someone who will relocate them, as we were lucky enough to do:
http://pachamamahouse.blogspot.com/2008/08/week-7-bee-gone.html
Wow! That was HUGE! And Africanized? Eeek!
Glad everyone is OK!
O MY
[Yep, that's all I got...except to say glad you all weren't stung during removal!]
I have come back to this post so many times. I showed my girls when it went up, and they tell everyone that comes to our house about your bees. So amazing! and absolutely crazy!
Good Article
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