MORE than 150,000 bees have been discovered living in a ceiling at a home in the Highlands.
The Loch Ness Honey Company were called by the homeowners in Inverness after they discovered a swarm of bees in their home.
Beekeeper Andrew Card was tasked with rescuing the bees and discovered three different colonies living in the house.
Each colony had around 50,000 to 60,000 bees and they were inhabiting the ceilings above the bedroom, bathroom, and living room.
Card managed to find two queens but was unable to find the third as he believed it was due to the time of the season.
Speaking to STV Card said: “Each colony was bigger than we estimated. I would say 50,000 to 60,000 in each of the three colonies.
“We located the queen out of two of them. The third one, we didn’t manage, but I think it’s because of the season. Then she’s been slow to mate because there weren’t any eggs in there either.”
“We’ve recovered all the bees and the household is now satisfied that we’ve done a good job,” he added.
Card then explained the rescue bees will be relocated to a remote apiary, also known as a bee yard, and monitored for diseases.
He also added that the Loch Ness Honey Company will do its best to look after the bees.
He said: “We’ve relocated the bees to one of our out apiaries. So, we have an isolation apiary.
“Any swarms or any kind of unknown bees that we come across we’ve put into an isolation apiary. We monitor them for about six weeks for diseases.
“We feed them up to make sure that they’re nice and healthy and then we overwinter them and that will be next year’s honey production colonies then.
“We try and do our best to look after them.
“Pollinators, on the whole, have taken a huge impact in the last few years.
“We’re also seeing big losses with the honey bees this year because of the type of winter that we’re suffering longer than normal.”
