In article . 10,
Victoria Clare writes:
| lid (Rodger Whitlock) wrote in
| :
|
| It is my understanding that having a honeybee
| hive in one's walls is a fairly serious matter. Sooner or later
| the hive will die out and you are left with a mass of wax and
| honey which will itself eventually decay and cause an incredible
| mess inside the wall. And this is a semi-fluid mess which can
| soak through plaster, flow down into lower levels, and so on. No
| trifling matter.
|
| We had one in a chimney, which was gassed. Solid stone walls and chimney
| breasts supporting them, so no way to get the hive out (bottom of that flue
| was blocked up.)
|
| We just left it in the 15 years later, still no problems. If it was
| inside a wall next to plasterboard or something I imagine it would be more
| problematic though.

We had no problem, either. The honey and (still more) wax will
NOT decay into a semi-fluid mess unless there are ALSO damp
problems. If kept reasonably dry, both will keep indefinitely
(though they will crystallise and oxidise somewhat).

"Indefinitely" means for millennia at least, incidentally.


Regards,
Nick Maclaren.