Couple discovers their house was turned into a giant beehive after finding honey dripping down the walls
A couple were shocked after finding out their house had been turned into a giant beehive when they noticed honey dripping down the walls.
Kate Dempsey, 41, and her husband Andrew Dempsey, 42, said they initially dismissed some dark spots around their home in Folkestone, Kent, as damp.
But an oddly sweet smell wafting through the house made Mrs. Dempsey reconsider her initial thoughts.
He decided to lift up the floorboards and found a six foot comb along with gallons of honey.
Speaking about the incredible find, Ms Dempsey, a diversity and inclusion adviser, recalled that it took ‘weeks’ for them to get rid of everything and replace the flooring.
Kate Dempsey, 41, and her husband Andrew Dempsey, 42, said they initially dismissed some dark spots around their home in Folkestone, Kent, as damp. The couple found an old beehive that was completely rotting away, as their discovery seemed endless.
After lifting the floor, the couple found six-foot pieces of comb and gallons of honey.
Along with some friends and her husband Andrew Dempsey (left), 42, communications director, Ms. Dempsey (right) decided to tackle the problem herself.
Kate Dempsey initially dismissed the dark spots as wet. But the sweet scent of her made her reconsider and she lifted up the floorboards of her house in Folkestone, Kent.
The total volume of the hive was enormous. The couple said they “kept cutting these floorboards and more and more honeycombs kept coming out.”
She said: ‘We’ve never seen anything like it. The total volume of the hive was enormous.
‘We kept cutting these floorboards and more and more honeycombs kept appearing.
The smell hit you immediately. It was this sweet stench and we had this really sick smell for a long time, (I just felt) disbelief really.
After trying to find someone to clean the entire hive, the couple were given an estimate of up to £10,000.
So along with some friends, the couple decided to challenge him and tackle the problem themselves.
They put on a pair of rubber gloves to scoop out the sticky honey, removing large amounts.
But to make matters worse, swarms of ‘robber bees’ kept continually coming up and trying to claim the sweet stuff for themselves while the Dempseys worked on a hot summer day.
The couple also revealed that they disgustingly found worms and moths among the honey and around the floor.
Kate Dempsey and her husband Andrew Dempsey say it took them around ‘four weeks in total to get all the honey out’
Along with their friends, the couple donned a pair of rubber gloves to scoop out the sticky honey, removing large amounts. After getting it all out they replaced the floor boards.
Mrs Dempsey was quoted up to £10,000 when she tried to find a company to clean the entire comb, so she decided to do it herself.
The 41-year-old said: ‘It all started in the really hot summer of last year. We noticed black sticky things coming down our bedroom wall.
It got to the point where we couldn’t ignore it anymore. I smelled it and tasted it and it was honey.
‘I had no idea what was going on.
‘We had seen bees when we first moved in, but they were gone, and we had repainted the house.
I went to our daughter’s room, which is above ours, and removed the rug. These huge worms started coming out of the floorboards.
He went on to say that they found an old beehive that was completely rotting away, as there seemed to be no end to their discovery.
Kate revealed that swarms of ‘robber bees’ kept swooping into the house and trying to claim the honey for themselves as they worked on a hot summer day.
While digging into the comb, Mrs. Dempsey said they kept finding a lot more, and even found “a little bit of roof over our window and that was full of golden honey, too.” The couple pictured above with Phoebe and their daughter Esme, ages 10 and seven.
The mother explained: ‘We decided we were going to lift up the floorboards and see what was happening. We found an old beehive and it was almost composting, a lot of moths were coming out.
“We started shooting more and more, it seemed like there was no end, it was absolutely disgusting.
‘We ripped out this huge six foot comb. When we were in the middle of (cleaning it up), we woke up one morning and the room was full of bees.
“We called the local beekeepers for help and one came to look, saying they were robber bees and had come to the nest to steal the honey.”
Robber bees is a name used to describe honey bees that invade other hives and steal honey.
And Ms Dempsey said they continued to dig up more comb, revealing the mess to be ‘horrendous’.
She said: ‘We kept finding more and more, there’s a bit of a roof over our window and that too was full of golden honey.
‘You can imagine the mess. It was horrible.
“I was really worried about the scale of how much damage it could have caused. I have no idea (how long it was there) but it would have taken a long time.
“It took us about four weeks in total to remove all the honey, but we were all very keen to do as much as possible not to disturb or kill the bees.”