Bee rescue in Northamptonshire village as 40,000 bees set up home in chimney
Our reporters Nish Kumar and Josh Widdicombe are on the scene of the recovery of 40,000 bees from a chimney in Mawsley, near Kettering.
Northamptonshire bee rescue
Key Events
- Follow our reporters Josh and Nish on a very special bee rescue
- The bees will be removed using specialist equipment – a type of bee vacuum – to keep them alive so they can be transferred to a safer place.
- Experts have been using scaffolding on the chimney to access the location where the bees were found by the homeowners.
- The vacuum has been attached to the top of the chimney. Once the expert are confident that they have removed most of the bees, a bricklayer will crack the top off to remove the honeycomb and any stragglers
- The bees have been vacuumed out and now the honey comb will be extracted
- Josh Widdicombe has dropped his phone down the chimney
- Phone recovered - but covered in honey
- Breaking news regarding chimney status
- The ‘chimney’ is ornamental
- The extraction has been safely completed
- The Bees will now be transferred to the farm
There’s been a slight interruption to the process of bee extraction due to our reporter on the scene, Josh Widdicombe, having dropped his phone into the chimney, presumably that will now have to be vacuumed out.
More on this phone debacle as it happens...
Our reporter Josh Widdicombe, standing just over the hole, has observed that "there are loads of bees"
The wind is howling around us as the bees continue to swarm around George and Mark.
They're still using the vacuum to persuade the bees to come in.
They are deep into their work now, moving deliberately without a hint of panic or haste, which would further disrupt the already agitated colony.
They're scraping out the honey
The chimney has been removed. Now the trickier process of getting the honeycomb out begins.
After the initial disruption the bees have increased in ferocity.
George and Mark are remaining calm
