Someone contacted me about a beehive living in a pillar in the front porch of their house. It has been there for about 4 years and they've tried killing it a few times with bee & wasp killer. Each time it was sprayed it set back the colony a bit, but never completely killed it. They've also had other people out to try to seal up the opening with expanding foam, tar, and caulking, but that never really worked either, as the bees just chewed through and reopened it.
It took about 4 hours just to get the pillar open. We took a great deal of care in removing the cedar siding so it could be reassembled easily. But then we discovered some OSB that was nailed in place and refused to pull free. So cutting it open was the only option.
The hive looked like they had recently swarmed, but with no queen cells to be found. There were no drones, some young larva, but no eggs, and we never found the queen. The comb was very dark. They had very little capped honey. Just for safety, I gave them a frame of eggs and brood of all stages to give them the opportunity to raise a queen, should they need to.
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