A giant colony of bees has been causing a stir in Inverness after about 180,000 were discovered living inside a house's ceiling. The bees are believed to have resided above the plasterboard ceiling of a spare bedroom for several years. The homeowner's grandchildren reported hearing buzzing sounds at night, BBC reported.
Three colonies were found in the house, each with up to 60,000 bees. Beekeeper Andrew Card of the Loch Ness Honey Company was called in to relocate the swarm to temporary hives. The colonies will be monitored for parasites over the next few weeks before being used for honey production next year.
Mr Card posted a short video on social media, showcasing the immense size of the hive and explaining the task ahead.
See the video here:
Speaking to The Press and Journal, Mr Card believes the first colony to be around seven years old, with the other two forming in recent years.
He says it's the largest one he's tackled to date.
"The chap was doing maintenance on his roof and he was aware there were potentially bees living in it but he saw a swarm go into the bathroom, so he thought it needed to be dealt with so he gave us a shout," he explained.
"I've done about maybe 30 over the last three or four years but this is the biggest one we have done."
With the help of a thermal imaging camera, the beekeeper located the bees, though he admits that what lay beneath the plasterboard was much larger than he had anticipated.
He added: "I use a thermal imaging camera to identify where they are so that gave me an idea of the exact position for them and then it was a case of opening up the plasterboard. I was expecting maybe three feet worth but each one of them was between six and eight feet.
"It was bigger than I was expecting. There were between 150,000 and 180,000. A good colony this time of year would have 50,000 bees in it so it was a bit on the larger side."
Mr Card speculates that the bees selected that specific location because of its size, as the flat-roofed property lacked insulation, providing a capacity of up to 40 liters.
