When we moved in here it was winter and we were unaware of the resident bee colony in the corner of the roof, we later found out that there have been bees living in this hole for over a hundred years, they apparently ruined the Vicars tea party according to an 1890's parish magazine by swarming and causing the guests to leg it!
Anyway there they were, we quickly realized that they were well out of our way so left them be (no pun intended) however they would not tolerate anyone up a ladder with a paint brush so that corner of the house after 100 years plus was rotting and shabby, Jackdaws had forced their way in, then to cap it all the cast iron guttering came down straight through the conservatory roof. Its taken a long time to find anyone willing to tackle the job of replacing the fascias and gutters. I had hoped the Bees could stay but the first day of work and they were out in force to check on what was going on so I called some local bee keepers, this is us up removing all the honey comb and trying to get the queen and bees into a temporary box.
bees 001 by charliepridham, on Flickr
bees 002 by charliepridham, on FlickrBy nightfall when the temporary hive was to be removed we realized they had all gone back into the roof! even though all their food stores had gone, its taken a further 3 days to get them out and I feel bad about having probably killed the colony