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A man says he uncovered a giant beehive hidden inside the ceiling of his new home less than a month after moving in

Joey Hadden   

A man says he uncovered a giant beehive hidden inside the ceiling of his new home less than a month after moving in
  • Andrew Noyes told Insider he found a beehive in the ceiling of his San Francisco home.
  • Noyes said he heard noises from the ceiling and saw dead bees around the house.
  • Noyes said a beekeeper told him the hive was dead, and robber bees were invading it for honey.

When Andrew Noyes bought a home with his husband in San Francisco, they didn't realize they'd be sharing it with robber bees.

Noyes, 41, told Insider that he and his husband - who both work for start-ups - starting spotting bee carcusses around their home shortly after they moved in this September. Noyes said they saw some live bees buzzing around their home office, bedroom, and bathroom, too.

"We also noticed some substantial bee activity on the exterior of the home at a single point near a water pipe at the roofline," Noyes said.

Then came sounds from the ceiling - "like raindrops," Noyes said.

So, he brought in a beekeeper, and quickly discovered there was a beehive in the ceiling.

Noyes had the hive removed over the weekend, and documented the process in a series of tweets on Saturday.

A beekeeper found the hive in the office ceiling after using a thermal-imaging device and stethoscope to detect heat - according to Noyes, the professional told him that the hive gives off heat - and bee activity.

Once he cut open the ceiling, the beekeeper found a giant hive that he said was likely active before the couple moved in and had died out, Noyes said.

As for the live bees buzzing around, the beekeeper told Noyes that "robber bees from other hives were pilfering leftover honey from the hive and taking it back to their own hives," and that the hive probably produced 100 pounds of honey at its peak.

The beekeeper used a vacuum to suck up bees without harming them, as one of Noyes' tweets shows.

To extract the hive, Noyes tweeted that the beekeeper brought in another worker. "They were suited up and the room was sealed for most of the extraction but we could peek in at various points to see their progress," Noyes told Insider.

Noyes said the extraction cost $500, and that since the removal he's only seen a few confused robber bees around the outside of the home close to the entry point where the hive used to be.

"We're in a neighborhood with plenty of nature, which we love," Noyes said. "But we'd certainly prefer that nature remains outside of the house."

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