Florida Family Discovered 80,000 Bees with 100 Pounds of Honey in their Shower.
In St. Petersburg, Florida, a family wondered if they were hearing noises in their bathroom. But, they weren’t going crazy. They found bees wandering around! While at first they let the bees be due to their love for nature, they ended finding more than expected. It wasn’t the first time the family had to call a beekeeper about a bee removal situation. After calling a local beekeeper, Ms. Bixler, the Graham family discovered that the hive that was inside their bathroom was 7-feet tall!
Based on images and to our expertise, bee hives that are huge have about 90,000 bees with at least 100 pounds of honey to remove. This beehive removal would have not been an easy job to do. From removing the wall, vacuuming the bees, taking the honey out, and covering everything back up would have taken hours to do for a beekeeper. For the beekeeper, the process took more than 5 hours and costed a whopping $800. For most bee removal jobs, prices like these are typical because most aren’t covered by insurance. While we don’t know Ms. Bixler’s policy, we at Bee Removal Specialist provide 30-day warranties to all of our customers.
The Grahams and the beekeeper expressed details of their bathroom and how the process went. They described the situation very sticky. They said that there was honey everywhere—on the walls, floor, shoes, and doorknobs. The beekeeper had to take down the wall to the studs in order to remove the comb out. The mess was so big that the beekeeper had to put down plastic coverings to prevent more mess. Most beekeepers are accustomed to bee removals in roofs, sheds, or trees but it’s rare that bees enter the house in a specific area like a bathroom
She was able to pinpoint the bee hive with a thermal detector gun, presenting an area of 96 degrees. Unfortunately, the family had to endure multiple bee stings as the bee removal process was going on. Professor Robert Page Jr. stated that the odor from the previous colony is what attracted the current colony to live in the bathroom. That’s why it’s important for beekeepers and customers to know that when a bee removal area is done, they should cover up the job with insulation and special commercial chemical product to deter bees from coming back to that area.
The Grahams also explained other bee removal situations they had to go through. They explained a bee removal job from three years ago that occurred in the same bathroom. It was also a big hive, according to the family. Apparently, the reason for their recurring bee removal situation, the roof work that was done on the house had left holes. We, as bee removal experts, know that bees love holes that they can fit their colonies in for protection and maximum warmth.
Finally, the beekeeper was able to finish and find the queen bee, whose was double the size of a regular working bee. She had the queen bee in a protective cage and took the rest of the bees in a box back home. The family was even lucky to keep some of the honey! The beekeeper has a bee yard in her small farm in St. Petersburg where the bees can continue growing and keeping our ecosystem healthy in a safe, new home.
Beekeeper Specialist Jan 11, 2022
