Welcome back to the Bee Sanctuary! Today’s adventure took us to a site with a very fitting name: Honeydew, Johannesburg. An electrical contractor called us in after he tried to fix a fault in a utility box, only to be met by a defensive swarm of African honeybees (Apis mellifera scutellata).

While we usually find bees inside the metal control boxes, these clever girls had chosen a much sturdier fortress: the brickwork base beneath the stand.

The Challenge: Breaking the Barrier

We could see the bees entering and exiting through gaps in the bricks, but getting to the nest was a mission.

• The Access Point: We decided to cut into the reverse side of the brick stand to avoid disturbing the electrical components in the front.
• Tools of the Trade: Ideally, I’d use an impact chisel, but we had to make do with an angle grinder, a manual chisel, and a hammer. It was slow going, but we eventually revealed a cavity that extended nearly half a meter underground.
• The Nest: Despite the deep cavity, the nest itself was manageable. The bees had built long, beautiful curtains of honeycomb vertically within the brick void.

The “Shock” Mid-Removal

Just as we were bragging about our Bee Vac‘s 5-year perfect track record, the power suddenly cut out.

• Load Shedding or Short Circuit? At first, we worried we’d nicked a cable, but all the wires were safely contained in metal piping. In South Africa, we deal with load shedding (scheduled power cuts), but this turned out to be a simple tripped main switch. Once we flipped it back, we were back in business.

Technical Extraction & Prevention

Working through a hole in brickwork is finicky, but we successfully vacuumed the workers and salvaged the best pieces of brood comb.

• The “Nursery” First: As always, we mounted the brood into frames immediately. Keeping the larvae warm is the secret to making a colony accept their new home.
• Bee-Proofing: Once the cavity was empty, we filled it with ceiling insulation (Fabu-fill). Even though future scouts will smell that bees once thrived here, the insulation leaves no physical space for them to build a new nest.

Relocation to the Apiary

We transported the colony to the apiary and transferred them into their new permanent hive.

• The Verdict: The swarm turned out to be quite a bit bigger than it looked inside the wall! They were calm and settled onto their rescued brood frames almost immediately. We have high hopes that they’ll love their new, non-electrical home.

Want to see more strange places bees hide in Johannesburg?

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