A couple from Australia have been left shocked, after a two-meter-long beehive containing more than 60,000 honey bees was cut out of the ceiling of their home, leaving them with 10kg of honey.
ABC News reports that the couple, who hail from a suburb in Brisbane in Queensland, Australia, discovered the enormous hive nestled between joists. It was 30 centimeters deep, and the sheer scale of it meant that they were forced to employ a professional beekeeper to help remove it.
In a later interview with ABC News, one of the homeowners stated: "We could see them on the outside where they entered, and we've been stung a few times as we go down the side. And you can just hear them … a humming and a little bit of a scratching noise."
Check out this incredible footage of the hive being removed in the video below:Commenting on the situation after he had humanely removed the bees from the property, beekeeper Paul Wood stated: "The first thing is, August, September and October being springtime, the bees swarm. They'll park in a tree for two to three days, looking for a new home. Unfortunately, we don't leave enough trees standing, so they choose the cavities of houses."
He continued: "The best thing to do would be for people to look out for bees when they swarm — then we can intervene and get the swarm, the whole colony, into a hive. If they're in the wall or the ceiling, your options are you call a beekeeper to get it out.
He added: "Bees tend not to spill honey at all, but if you kill this whole thing, all of that infrastructure … just sits in the ceiling and falls through."
Wood managed to remove the hive by cutting into the roof and vacuuming up the bees into a specially designed box. He then transported the bees to a new hive and collected the remaining honeycomb left over.
