AUSTIN, Texas — A beekeeper has removed a hive housing as many as 250,000 bees from an East Austin home, where it has been for at least 40 years.

A friend said the homeowner, 41-year-old Lillian Johnson, doesn't remember a time when the bees weren't humming from the kitchen walls. Alexandria Nesby said Johnson would sometimes tape holes in the kitchen walls to keep the bees out.
 

But Johnson began worrying that her 5-month-old son might get stung, and she decided to have the hive removed.
 

Beekeeper Walter Schumacher of Central Texas Bee Rescue said the 7-foot-tall hive is among the largest he's seen.