Just days before students returned to North Penn High School, one of the classrooms was infested by an unexpected swarm of honey bees.

On Monday, Montgomery County School district staff discovered an estimated 10,000 buzzing bees in two classrooms. Fortunately, a district facility staff member who is also a beekeeper was able to remove the bees. However, completely removing the hive presents a greater challenge.

Despite the bee invasion, the school opened as planned and without incident on Wednesday, August 28. Complete removal of the bees is expected later this week, according to Thomas Schneider, director of facilities and operations, who spoke at a public committee meeting on Monday.

“Liberty Bell Bee Keeping plans to come by later this week. Unfortunately, we had to remove exterior bricks from the building to get to the hive and remove not only the hive but the queen bee as well,” Schneider said. “The queen bee is in what we call the cavity wall of the high school. We estimate there are 40,000 to 60,000 bees in that cavity wall.”

The bees entered the school through a “drain hole,” a small opening in the brick wall designed to prevent water damage by allowing excess water to drain away, according to a district spokesperson. The bees built a hive in the wall and entered classrooms through the ceiling.

Although the bees were initially removed on Monday, they returned to one of the classrooms late Tuesday afternoon, necessitating the relocation of the class along with two neighboring classes until the problem is fully resolved later this week.

The hive is scheduled to be removed on Friday when schools are closed for the long Labor Day weekend.

“This is new to me. We usually always have one or two bees or wasps in a classroom at a time, but this was unprecedented,” Schneider said in Monday’s meeting. “Standing in the room before all the bees were removed, you could hear them all buzzing – it sounded like a beehive.”