Bees in the roof or bouble brick wall cavity

[aussiblue]

A beehive has decided to take up residence in my ceiling space (or maybe more likely the cavity between the two outer brick walls) of my house in Bibra Lake no doubt having been evicted from their home in the banksia bushland being cleared for Roe 8 across the road. I don't suppose Premier Colin will pick up the cost of moving them on but perhaps I can get the Roe 8 Police brigade to give them a move on order.

I am trying ascertain the exact location of the hive but with the weather change (rain) they have become inactive so I will have to await the return of sunny days to go hive hunting again. Once I know exactly where the hive is I will get a quote from a beekeeper for their removal.

Of course, if they are just in the roof space, removing the roof tiles and leaving them off and the hive open to the sky should encouage them to swarm and fly off to a new home.

Some of the stuff on the Internet suggests that if they are in the cavity wall they will be difficult to relocate and the option might be to kill them or just leave them there in peace. I suspect the NBN guy will love the idea of an active hive when he comes to put another cable through the roof space and I am not convinced they won't damage the house. In the longer term, I can't see a hive in the wall being a real estate value adding feature. Anyone have any experience with having an active swarm in their external cavity wall; what damge might a hive do?

[Kermit]

I would have thought a beekeeper would be happy to take them for you if reasonably accessible. I think they just have to find the queen and then all the others follow. They would do it either early in the morning or in the evening when they are inactive. "Bee" careful!

[Jason]

@aussiblue

I hope members of the Workshop community have some advice for you. @darylhewston might be able to offer some suggestions. 

An alternative might be to contact the WA Apiarists Society.

Good luck.

Jason

[darylhewston]

Unfortunately I can't help on this one.  We were looking at setting up a hive but just don't have the right position available. 

Hopefully you can find someone to take them to a new home.

Cheers'n'beers

Daryl

[aussiblue]

Well I got up this morning and the bees had left; or I should say “buzzed off”. There was a couple buzzing around where they had been going into the roof before and a few angry and seemingly confused ones under the pergola shade cloth on the other side of the house but by 4;30pm there was no sign of any of them.

Perhaps me banging on the wall yesterday trying to find them had disturbed them or perhaps the had just decided to rest in my roof while the unseasonable rain passed or perhaps turning on my evaporative air at around 11pm and leaving it on most of the night froze them out (the air vents into the ceiling through ceiling vents as well as out the windows and my wife woke up in the early hours complaining she was so cold she had cramps in her legs).

I feel kind of miffed that my accommodation wasn’t up to their standards but I glad the problem is solved. Hopefully, they are not just using another entrance into the roof space that I have not yet found.