Location
The Cotswolds
Stone
Matching ashlar, pieced into the existing gable
Scope
Chimney taken down and the gable made good; colony rehomed by a beekeeper before any stone was moved

The problem

Taking a chimney down on a church gable is ordinary stonemasonry. Doing it when a honeybee colony has made its home inside the wall is not.

Opening the stonework revealed comb built deep into the cavity. Bees in a wall cannot simply be worked around: disturb them and you have a welfare problem, a safety problem for anyone on the scaffold, and a colony that will try to return to the same spot.

Honeycomb built into the opened stonework of a church gable, with bees flying around the scaffold
The comb, once the stonework was opened up.

What we did

We worked alongside a beekeeper, in bee suits, and the colony came out before the masonry went any further — moved to another home rather than destroyed. Only then did the chimney come down and the gable get made good in matching stone.

Two people in bee suits removing honeycomb from the church wall into a container
The colony being lifted out, not exterminated.
Mason in a bee suit on the scaffold beside the rebuilt section of pale ashlar stonework
New ashlar pieced into the gable, bees safely gone.

The result

A sound gable, a chimney safely down, and a colony of honeybees still alive somewhere else in the Cotswolds. Not every stone job needs a beekeeper on site — but when it does, it is worth doing properly.