Bee rescue mounted after hospital breaks out in hives

LONDON – It was a sticky situation.

A British hospital discovered it had become home to more than 100,000 bees when patients noticed honey dripping down the walls.

Beekeepers were summoned to Rockwood Hospital in Cardiff, Wales, after the discovery last month, and found a large colony of bees in the roof above a ward.

Abigail Reade of the Tree Bee Society charity said Thursday that honey was “dripping through the ceiling tiles, it was dripping down the walls.”

She said the hive had gone unnoticed for up to five years. It’s thought warm summer weather melted some of the wax, releasing the honey.

Beekeepers from the society removed some 70,000 bees by cutting a hole in the roof. A second colony was removed from another part of the hospital this week.