Bees build a hive inside home

Honey bees that invaded a Willow Glen home May 30 sent its 74-year-old occupant scrambling for help during a four-day saga.

It all started when Stephanie Angeli noticed bees flying near her indoor fireplace; normally unused and idle. She discounted the honey bees as temporary visitor’s but nevertheless was concerned.

“I just thought they would go away,” Angeli said.

But by the next day the honeybees had multiplied.

Angeli tried handling the situation herself with a handheld vacuum, hoovering the bees that were accumulating in her 1950s bungalow.

“This is the worse thing that has ever happened to me,” Angeli yelled while waving her vacuum cleaner in the air.

She taped the mouth of the vacuum. “Because if I don’t, they will get out. I just don’t know what to do,” she said.

Eventually, she tried a chimney cleaning service, but they didn’t “do bees.” Then, she searched online and found a beekeeper, but he wasn’t available until June 2.

Meanwhile, honey bees swarmed her house. She was becoming desperate.

“I guess the queen tells them what to do,” Angeli theorized. “Well, I made it dark. They don’t like that,” she said.

Angeli used cardboard, secured by rolls of packing tape over the mouth of the fireplace until help arrived.

“I can hear them starting to buzz,” she said as the afternoon wore on.

Her dog, Happy, a sevenyear-old Havannese female, heard the sound and started to investigate, too. She jumped up, trying to snag a bee or two.

It was the hottest day of the year so far.

Angeli thought by closing the fireplace damper the honey bees would eventually leave, but the roar of the bees continued to climb in the living room.

To protect Happy from possible stinging, she lodged her with a friend in San Francisco and while driving home, her security provider called to say that something or someone was in her house.

Security, who greeted her at her house, encouraged her to not to enter her own home. The honey bees had triggered the alarm, swarming near the light of the windows where the alarm sensor was mounted.

Finally, on June 2, help arrived.

“The mesh is too big on the chimney. We use ¼-inch. We use a specialized vacuum. We don’t kill them, our main goal is to save as many bees as possible and relocate so they can continue to pollinate,” said Swvin Nova of Nova Bee Keepers.

Nova speculated someone in the area may own a hive. If it gets too crowded, scouts or soldiers, as the are called, search for a new home similar to Ms. Angeli’s dark, cold chimney.

Turns out, Angeli was hosting a massive hive at the bottom of the fireplace inside the cold, dark chimney.

For Angeli, she is grateful for the bee keeper and hopes no one else will experience what she did during the past few days.

“The nightmare is over,” she said. We welcome stories from the community. If you have a story to tell about something that has happened in your community, send it to kabenz@bayareanewsgroup.com.