50,000 bees removed from house in Kitchener, Ont.

CTV Kitchener: More than 50,000 bees A Kitchener couple knew they had bees in their house, but didn't think it was tens of thousands of them. Alexandra Pinto explains.

The Ontario community of Kitchener was buzzing Tuesday about a homeowner who had 50,000 bees removed from a wall in her house.

The bees had been accumulating for about a year, flying into a small crevasse under the eaves of the roof and settling within the bedroom walls of the house – a fact that the homeowners were completely oblivious to. They said they heard buzzing every once in a while, but for the most part, it was silent.

“You hear about a swarm,” homeowner Carol Stewart said to CTV News Channel. “You would see that many going in and out of some little hole in our aluminum siding.”

Stewart called a beekeeper after someone was stung, but they never expected to find that many bees in their home.

She was shocked when a beekeeper examined her house and told her that thousands of bees were probably hiding behind her drywall. But even that statement couldn’t prepare them for the massive hive, full of honeycomb, that was revealed when they cut open the wall.

The beekeeper who uncovered the bees, David Schuit, owner of Saugeen Country Honey in Elmwood, Ont., used sugar water to calm the bees. Smoke was on hand in case the situation got out of control. Schuit then proceeded to remove the honey comb and the bees from the premises.

It may be a costly clean-up for Stewart, but at least her home will be bee-free.