We have been fighting with a hive of honey bees who decided to take up residence at our house almost two years ago. We first saw them upon returning from Harding graduation in May 2005. Check out this post.
Tracy provided a good report of the Bee Guy's efforts and we were confident that we had done what we needed to do to eliminate the hive before it became a real problem.
I can tell you that several more visits from the Bee Guy last summer and several hundred dollars later,we were still trying to get rid of the bees. They returned again this Spring and chewed through the caulking where the Bee Guy had sealed up and for the past few weeks have been feverishly working gathering pollen and going in and out of a hole the size of a pencil. It was hard to determine how many bees were working the hive until this week when they started swarming on the outside of the house again like they did in 2005.
This picture was taken last Saturday and there has been more and more each day since then. I had lined up a contractor to remove the soffit and fascia and clean out whatever honeycomb had been constructed.
They started on the job this evening and when Tracy and I returned from Wednesday night Bible study they were well underway. They must have killed several thousand bees and when they got the boards opened up they were able to remove about 100 lbs of honeycomb and honey so far. What a mess!
Honeycomb, honey, and a bunch of dead bees.
Demolition - Searching for the Queen
They had to spray the honeycomb with foam.
I'll update this post when they find the end of the honeycomb.
We may be on the news yet!