Restructuring the bathroom uncovers 80,000 bees nesting in their shower wall
One of the most important decisions in our life is to take the first steps towards independence; an independence that can only come when we are adults, we have a job that allows us to make it to the end of the month, that allows us to save and, perhaps, to buy a ourselves a house. When the moment arrives, we say "goodbye" to the family home and move into our home, bought or rented with our hard work. When this happens, we know that we have taken a fundamental step in our growth and independence.
via Seattle Times
Dekcuf/Flickr - Not The Actual Photo
To imagine this, put yourself in the shoes of a couple from Florida, who had decided to renovate their home to make sure that it was transformed into an environment suited to their needs. Getting a house all to yourself is certainly not an easy step at the beginning, so any renovation work is crucial in familiarising yourself to your new environment. But now imagine that you have to renovate your bathroom and unexpectedly find, under the tiles, a colony of honey bees. Stefanie and Dan, the Florida couple who star in this incredible event, have always known that there was something wrong in their beach house. Years before, they had found a beehive in the bathroom and got rid of it, but they could never have imagined that three years later, while renovating the bathroom, they would find a huge and unexpected surprise. Under the tiles, they found that there was still a colony of bees and a load of honey they had produced!
To try to get rid of the colony, or at least to figure out how best to act, the couple called Elisha Bixler, a local beekeeper to their aid: "There was honey everywhere: on the walls, on the floor, in the shoes, on top of the doorknobs. I had to knock the wall down to the framework to get the whole bee colony out of the wall!", said Bixler.
In order to extract the whole colony of about 80,000 bees, Bixler had to work for over 5 hours using protective clothing to keep herself from the stings of thousands of bees. At the end of the long "rescue operation", the beekeeper pulled 80,000 bees and about 45 kg of honey out of the bathroom shower wall. The queen bee was placed inside a protective cage, and the swarm progressively followed her until they were out of Stefanie and Dan's house.
What misfortune to befall this Floridian couple!
