Wingham Brush Public School was forced into lockdown on Wednesday, September 16 when a swarm of bees was found to have made it's home in a school building.
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The problem was noticed at around 10.15 when someone reported the 'gutters were buzzing' on the heritage building, which houses four classrooms. Bees were starting to enter the classrooms and the administration building.
On inspecting the outside of the heritage building, staff soon noticed where the problem was emanating from.
"There was a 30 centimetre circle of black completely covering the chimney of bees trying to get in," principal Kylie Seaman said.
They were very active. Because it was the middle of the day, our whole gutter was just buzzing. So I couldnt even have kids in the playground.
- Kylie Seaman, school principal
The swarm was found to have made its home inside the chimney of the building.
Immediately the school went into lockdown. Parents were called to collect their children and those that could not be collected were moved to classrooms further away from the building.
Staff were launched into risk management mode and spent six hours on the phones getting advice from three different beekeepers, as well as NSW Department of Education District and State offices and Work Health and Safety department.
"We investigated every possible option. I had so many people trying to find a solution for how we could do this without having to go to the extreme," Ms Seaman said.
Staff tried as best as they could to find a way the swarm could be removed from the building without harming the bees, but advice from the beekeepers was that it couldn't be done, as the walls are made of solid stone, not gyprock, and eradication was the only possible solution.
It was like every solution had another issue attached to it.
- Kylie Seaman
"They used a non-toxic, natural (method)," Ms Seaman said.
"We were working with the pest people to try and work out what we could do so that we didn't have to take that action, but it just got down to the point where even the beekeepers were saying 'we don't have a solution other than getting a cherry picker and closing the school.
"And they said it could take four to six weeks to get them safely removed, because they were going to put another hive on the roof of the two-storey building. When I told them where it was they just stopped and said, 'oh, we can't do that'.
"It was upsetting for everybody here, but the bottom line was the safety of the kids."
Not only the kids - Ms Seaman had to send some staff members home who are allergic to bees.
We waited and watched, hoping they might settle, move, but we were told they thought the queen had actually settled in there.
- Kylie Seaman
"The risk was just too great. We were even doing a count on how many EpiPens we had, seeing where we could source more if it came to that," she said.
Eradication took place early the next morning.
"Even then we still had to have the playground cordoned off because we didn't know what kind of success we were going to have," Ms Seaman said.
"It's very unfortunate and I was very upset because we see (bees) quite often in different areas. It's just unfortunate that's where they chose."
Also in the news:
Julia Driscoll
Julia Driscoll has worked as a journalist for the Wingham Chronicle and Manning River Times for seven years. She values the deep connection with community that being a rural and regional journalist brings. Career highlights have involved environmental stories - bringing the plight of the little known endangered Manning River helmeted turtle to the attention of the public, resulting in wide-spread knowledge in the community and conservation action; and breaking the news of the Manning River ceasing to run for the first time in recorded history.
Julia Driscoll has worked as a journalist for the Wingham Chronicle and Manning River Times for seven years. She values the deep connection with community that being a rural and regional journalist brings. Career highlights have involved environmental stories - bringing the plight of the little known endangered Manning River helmeted turtle to the attention of the public, resulting in wide-spread knowledge in the community and conservation action; and breaking the news of the Manning River ceasing to run for the first time in recorded history.
