A postbox in the wall in a Welsh hamlet became the unconventional home of a swarm of bees over the weekend. Residents of Dothan, Anglesey, were prompted to find an alternative location to post their letters on the weekend of July 2 and 3 after thousands of bees blocked the slot of a local post box.
Both the nearest post office in Llangefni and the Anglesey Beekeepers association were notified by residents and the bees were safely removed and rehomed on Sunday, July 3. A resident also confirmed to North Wales Live that no mail was affected by the swarm.
John Bowles, secretary of the Anglesey Beekeepers Association said that while an unusual place to nest, it's not unheard of as post boxes are dry and sheltered, and are therefore ideal conditions for bees.
He said: "It's not something we normally deal with but it's not unheard of for bees to nest in mailboxes. They're ideal spaces for them in a way because they're dry and sheltered - it's natural that they should choose to nest in one.
"What happens eventually is that the space they have chosen becomes too confined and then around half of them leave to find a new home. We normally put a box beneath the hive, knock the hive into the box and then turn the hive upside down. The rest of the bees then enter the hive.
"They're quite sedate at this point because they're nourished; they're not as defensive as they can be when their hives are disturbed though we do always wear our beekeeping suits just in case. In terms of getting them out of the post-box, once the door was open, we would have gently removed them by hand as we would if they were on a tree or anywhere else.
Mr Bowles added that the beekeeper would have transferred them to a bee box at least three miles away, as they would otherwise attempt to return to the original nest.
Royal Mail has been approached for comment.
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