Thousands of bees found in walls of Cape Breton farmhouse

BROAD COVE, N.S. -

The discovery of more than 80,000 honeybees in an old farmhouse in Cape Breton has been an overwhelming experience for property owner Charlene MacEachern.

“You could hear this buzz and humming noise coming from one of the walls. You didn't even have to put your ear to the wall to hear the noise. It was just overwhelming from the normal silence that's usually there,” said MacEachern.

MacEachern made the discovery after she says a bear ripped off shingles on two sides of the house, but she didn't initially realize how many new visitors there actually between the walls.

“I could tell from just even the sound. I looked on the back of the house and you could see one or two spots where they were getting in, but just by the volume of the sound, I knew it was a much bigger job than I could handle,” said MacEachern.

The call was made to local beekeepers for help, who had recently lost their own hives to mites over the winter.

“What we filtered to sell is about 40 or 50 pounds, but we also left the bees with quite a bit of their own honey, so it was probably close to 70 or 80 pounds,” said Lyndsay Debont, the owner of Screen Door Apiary & Farm.

Debont says it was the first time she and her husband took on a job this big. She says, in the end, they were able to rehome the bees safely.

“The bees were extremely calm and we could take our time and decide how we were going to cut and take the comb out,” said Debont.

MacEachern says she now has a story to tell and a tasty treat to share with friends and family.

“They gave us a big jar of honey, more than we needed, so we shared with family and now they can have a taste of the MacEachern farm honey,” she said.