As far as I know, this is a first for me, removing a bee nest for a client after their local council ordered them to do so. Every hive has a story, and this one has an interesting back story.

These bees had been nesting in the wall of this house for at least five years. After the neighbour was stung, a complaint to the council resulted in a formal request to have the bees exterminated or relocated. The neighbour's claim that the bees were aggressive is debatable, but more about that later.

When the homeowner first noticed bees entering the weep-holes at the bottom of his wall, he decided to block the holes, unaware that there were already thousands of bees nesting inside. It's an innocent assumption when you only see a few dozen bees coming and going. It didn't take long for the bees to find a new entry point at the top of the window.

Once again, the homeowner took action, sealing the gaps in the mortar where the aluminium window frames met the brickwork. The bees, undeterred, moved further up the wall to find another entry point around a window on the second story of the house. By this stage, the bees were entering the wall around five metres above the ground, well above head height and not posing a threat to anyone.

Two years down the track, the bees' entry was sealed again, forcing them further up the wall. Remarkably they started entering above the gutting, under the roof tiles, meaning they had to walk across the upper side of the soffit, and down the inside of the wall about six metres to their nest.

Bees only defend their nest from perceived threats; therefore, it is unusual for bees entering their nest eight or nine metres above the ground to cause many issues for people on the ground. Fortunately, we do not have aggressing bees in Australia; however, we find genetically more defensive strains than others.

In the case of these bees, I didn't find them to be overly defensive. I was able to do almost all of this removal job with little protection. I only put on a veil for a short period after copping a couple of stings to the same spot on my cheek in quick succession. Overall, the bees were pretty calm, which was no surprise when I discovered their queen was a beautiful Golden Italian known for their gentle temperament.