Someone called me on Sunday (10/10/98) with a truly unusual bee-hive
removal.
 
Their house was constructed around 1880 with an 18" stone exterior.  The
inisde of their house was all stucco.  Halfway up the stairwell was a 2'
by 1' glass pane which opened up into the wall.   Bees resided behing
the glass pane and went about their business as if no-one could see in.
 
The homeowner's had owned the house for 25 years and had never opened
the beehive, but simply let them co-exist with them.  No obvious damage
was ever done to the inside of the house since it was constructed of fir
timbers surrounded by stucco.  When they hired a crew to replace their
roof, the bees took exception to this idea and sent the noisy
'tresspassers' scurrying - which is why the homeowners called me to
remove the bees.
 
From what I've gathered from the home-owners, they think the hive was
built into the house for the tenants to retrieve honey whenever the need
surfaced, simply by opening the glass door.  There used to be a door at
both ends of the stairway, which they suspect was used to trap the bees
from entering the remainder of the house.
 
Some other interesting information on the house is that it used to be a
stagecoach stop when there were no other houses within 10 miles or so
(according to someone who stopped in to visit the house whom lived in
there from 1910-1917).  No information on the beehive was discussed with
this person when they visited.  Today the house resides on the outskirts
of South-Denver and is surrounded by housing developments and office
buildings.
 
Upon opening the glass, I found the brood directly behind the glass, so
I'll assume the bees kept warm from the house.  The hive was split
between fir 2x4's which had 1" holes drilled between them (for?
bee-access?).  One side of the hive contained the brood - which ran
probably four feet up & down, by what looked to be 18" from timber to
timber.  The other side of the window was 100% capped honey (same
dimmensions).  This honeycomb was SO hard it literally cracked like
concrete when enough force was applied.  I was able to remove comb in
both directions around 12-15" up & down from the top & bottom of the
window, but the old comb appeared to continue 'forever' up the wall.
The bottom appeared to stop within arm's reach from the window.  What I
found MOST curious of this hive was that is was only 3"- 4" in width,
stopping at the ouside Fir boards (followed by 18" or so of stone).
 
If the builders wanted to keep bees for honey, why would they make the
hive so shallow at the window?  These bees DID build most of their comb
surrounding the window, but I'm wondering if this was planned by the
hive-builders.  If so, the builder knew something about bees as the
outside entrance ended within 2" of the inside window ....as bees prefer
to build as close to the entrance as possible (the entrance was a
well-constructed 1" hole drilled through the framing).
 
Coincidence or did someone captalize on some bees which invaded their
stone house?
 
 
For those whom are curious how I kept the bees from entering the house,
I draped large drop-cloths on the stairwell and used my bee-vacuum to
remove the majority.
 
Matthew Westall in Castle Rock, CO