An estimated 50,000 honey bees are inside the walls of a Montco high school
North Penn High School removed the bees from inside affected classrooms and will fully remove the hive and queen bee on Friday.
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Just days before students were set to return to North Penn High School from their summer break, a swarm of honeybees unexpectedly took over one of the classrooms.
On Monday, district employees at the Montgomery County school discovered an estimated 10,000 bees buzzing inside two classrooms. One of the district’s facilities staff members, who is also a beekeeper, was able to remove the bees. However, the complete removal of the hive presents a more significant challenge.
Despite the bee invasion, the school opened as planned on Wednesday, Aug. 28, without incident. The full removal of the bees is expected later this week, according to Thomas Schneider, facilities and operations director, who spoke at a public committee meeting on Monday.
“Liberty Bell Bee Keeping will be planning to come out at the end of this week. Unfortunately, we had to remove exterior brick from the building to access the hive, to remove not only the hive but also the queen bee,” said Schneider. “The queen bee is in what’s called the cavity wall of the high school. We’re anticipating 40,000 to 60,000 bees in that cavity.”
The bees entered the school through a “weep hole,” a small opening in the brick wall designed to prevent water damage by allowing excess water to escape, according to a district spokesperson. The bees built a hive within the wall and made their way into the classrooms through the ceiling.
Although the bees were initially removed on Monday, they returned to one of the classrooms late Tuesday afternoon, necessitating the relocation of the class, along with two neighboring classes, until the issue is fully resolved later this week.
The hive is expected to be removed on Friday when schools are closed for the long Labor Day holiday weekend.
“It’s a new one for me. We always get one or two bees or wasps in a classroom at a time, but this was unprecedented,” Schneider said in Monday’s meeting. “When you were standing inside the room prior to removing all the bees, you could just hear all the bees buzzing — it sounded like a bee hive.”