KINGSTON, Tenn. — A Roane County woman embraced some unexpected house guests that ignited a whole new hobby.
Marilyn Maines has made a lot of new friends.
That happens when your home becomes a hive.
"I'm in the backyard, and [my husband] comes and gets me and goes--we've got bees up there."
Twenty feet up, honey bees had built a hive inside the wall of her Kingston house.
Then, the "house-swarming" party began.
Maines enlisted the help of beekeeper and Roane County Executive Ron Woody.
"Ron Woody is the bee whisperer," Maines said.
Woody and Maines' husband Lee cut the wall wide open while Maines videoed the project for Facebook.
"My husband takes the sheetrock off, and there was huge honeycomb on the sheetrock, which you know, was totally unexpected," Maines said.
They installed clear plastic, creating a window into the hive.
"We have granddaughters that are [ages] six, five, three, two [and] one," Maines said. "And my oldest granddaughters, the first night we did it, they came over and spent the night--slept right there. Their mother was like, oh my God, and I was like, shut up. They think it's the coolest thing, and it is."
A Beekeeper Barbie doll Maines recently bought for the girls thinks the same thing.
"With these three oldest granddaughters, they fight over her, so I'm going to have to get two more," Maines joked.
And Maines said her friends brought a "house-swarming" gift, the honey dripping from the honeycomb in the wall.
"There's already some honey coming out," Maines said. "So that's as local honey as you can get when it comes out of your wall."
Maines said honey bees are incredibly important to the environment, so she's happy to help them.
She said she's taking a new beekeeper class at UT next month for her new hobby.