There wasn’t anything he could do
Several years ago, I called the HVAC company. I wanted to know who I should call to have the chimney cleaned. I wanted to have the fireplace ready for use in case I needed it. My furnace was getting old and we had been having problems for quite a while now. They kept telling me that it could completely die at any time. I knew that if I had the fireplace prepared for use, I would have some kind of heating in the house. I kept looking at a dark spot on the wall that was up against the chimney. I thought maybe the heat of the chimney was causing the wall to become discolored. The problem here was that it kept getting bigger and darker, and there wasn’t a fire in the fireplace. When I talked to the people who cleaned the chimney, he told me they couldn’t even see in the chimney. He was going to put a light inside and try to get a picture of what the blockage was. They put one light and camera up the chimney from the inside, and one down the chimney from the outside. Five minutes later, the chimney cleaner came in and told me I needed an exterminator or a beekeeper. There wasn’t anything he could do. From the bottom where the spot was up to about four feet down, inside the chimney, the chimney was one large honey bee nest. I called around to see if I could find a beekeeper who would be able to entice the bees out. I didn’t want to kill them all, but I didn’t want honey and dead bees in my chimney when I lit the fireplace..