My friends and I rented a fishing cabin for a long weekend and ended up with a sizable challenge. It was early October, so we were happy that there was a fireplace for heat if necessary. The locale was rustic and looked as if no one had stayed there in quite a while. For three guys, it was perfect. We unpacked our stuff and immediately headed to the shoreline to drop or lines. At dusk, we returned to the cabin to cook our fish and start a fire. The problem was, once we started the kindling, the whole cabin filled with smoke. We inspected the damper to see if it was still closed. Upon opening it, a bunch of bees started to fill the room. We were relieved the smoke was calming them and they weren’t in attack mode. We quickly closed the damper and called the owner. He had no idea that bees had built a nest in the chimney but offered to call someone to come out first thing in the morning. That wasn’t helpful for the first night. We had to sleep in layers of sweaters because it was so cold. The bee removal guy showed up bright and early. He hoped to start the job before the hive was active. We were fishing on the lake all afternoon. When, we returned there was a note taped to the door saying that the hive had been removed and it was OK to use the fireplace. The stink of smoke was a bit annoying. The guy had to use a mixture of woodsmoke to move the bees without irritating them. We got credit applied to the rental which was awesome too.