Honeybee Removals
If bees are living in your property for awhile,
read below
Extraction Examples & Costs
This page will explain the various types of places bees will end up, and the costs involved, starting with the easiest and cheapest extractions moving onto the harder, more dangerous, and less than ideal situations.

Compost Bins
Cost: Typically free if the bees arrived in the last few weeks.
Difficulty: The easiest cases we get
Needs roofer or builder: No
Needs lift or scaffolding: No
After steps, once the bees come out: Rub bleach where the wax was to prevent it reoccurring.
Requires power: Probably
Similar cases but different:
Road cones, bird boxes, suitcases in the garden, odd places that are low down with no risk. Anything that doesnt require a ladder.

Bees in the wall
Cost: 300e typically, plus milage.
Difficulty: Really hard usually
Needs roofer or builder: Depends on where it is.
Needs lift or scaffolding: Depends on height.
After steps, once the bees come out:
Requires Power: Most likely yes.
Similar cases but different: Cavity walls, walls in an estate etc
Notes: If the bees are going into the roof, but seem to be going in via where the stone meets the soffit, there is not a small chance the bees are in the cavity of the wall rather than under the slates. Sometimes these can be dealt with similarly to how the “bees under the slates” cases work. Sometimes not. Depending on the width of the cavity, it can be doable, or really really really hard.
If the bees are below 8 foot, the only option at live removal might be a “Trap Out”. Trap outs are a 4 week method to trick the bees out, but are very uncommon in Ireland.


Bees under the slates
Cost: (beekeeper) 300e, roofer + height adds to the expense. Typically around 1000-1200e
Difficulty: Medium to hard
Needs roofer or builder: Yes
Needs lift or scaffolding: If 1 story, then just a level of scaffolding, if 2 story or more, then scaffolding or a lift. A cherry lift offers much easier access and removes the need to haul heavy things up and down the scaffolding. The smallest and cheapest bucket lifts don’t usually provide enough space to work.
After steps, once the bees come out: The cavity should be back filled with insulation, in every direction it will fit. The membrane under the slates should be repaired, as tight as possible to stop bees returning.
Requires Power: Yes
Similar cases but different: There are lots of types of roofs and roof materials, but its the most common case we receive. Usually, the bees can be retrieved alive and in great nick.

Bees in a flat roof or Dormer window
Cost: 400/450 depending on age.
Difficulty: Very unpleasant jobs to perform, especially if the room they are in has unmovable furniture below the spot they are in. Toilets, baths, kitchens, anything that stops a ladder being used. I would class these as “Cut ups”. Cut ups usually involve staring straight up for hours on end, and getting absolutely destroyed in honey. These jobs tend to be very messy, and require more preparation and clean up than external jobs. However, overall they are cheaper, by a large factor, then going externally via the roof (especially for flat roof cases).
Wires can present a lethal danger, wires embedded in the cavity of the flat roof.
Needs roofer or builder: Needs someone to patch the plaster hole cut to access.
Needs lift or scaffolding: No lift, sometimes a scaffold helps if it will fit. Height of the room is also a variable.
After steps, once the bees come out: Stuff cavity with rockwool insulation. Get a builder or plasterer to patch the plaster, painting.
Requires Power: Most likely yes
Similar cases but different: Any flat roof, or “small” dormer roof above a window usually falls into this category.

Bees in the Chimney
If this just occured, lighting the fire is THE BEST thing you can do, if it can be lit. Read more here.
Cost: 800e-2000e+
Difficulty: Exceptionally difficult. If the bees are near the top of the flue, if the flue is “capped”, then the chances of getting bees out easily is high.
The lower the bees are in the flue, the harder it becomes.
If the chimney has been relined, the bees might be in the breast and not the flue. Proper removal can involve breaking open the breast (MASSIVE JOB).
Needs roofer or builder: Depends
Needs lift or scaffolding: Usually yes, in lift form.
After steps, once the bees come out: Depending on removal technique, something like a Spinning Cowl should be installed. If the chimney is not in use, then it should be sealed up.
Requires Power: Most likely yes
Similar cases but different: n/a