ANSON, Texas (KTAB/KRBC) – For a decade, the Lozano family in Anson has had a beehive in their attic. The colony grew larger and larger each year, and so did the issues that come with an infestation of that size. Homeowner Isabel Lozano said they noticed a few bees when they had their roof redone in 2013, but without being able to get into the attic, they had no idea how bad the issue had gotten.

“It got bad. It got where we couldn’t even use the living room anymore… It started melting, and it started leaking through my ceiling fans, and the ceiling fell in… They were coming in through the vents, and we had to close up all the vents,” Lozano said.

The weight of the beehive had caved in the ceiling in their living room about three years ago. Around this time, they began to notice honey dripping down the walls. They had called exterminators, but they were unable to hire anyone who could actually remove the bees from their home. The final straw came about a year ago when the attacks began.

“It was my husband and one of my nephews, and they got pretty bad… One of my brothers-in-law got attacked and was sent to Hendricks. The nurses at the hospital said he got stung over 400 times,” said Lozano.

With little hope and no ability to remove the hive themselves, they needed a miracle. And a miracle is just what they found in Victor Rosenhoff, a Christian youth pastor with a bee allergy and a part-time gig as a beekeeper.

“I’m slightly allergic. I have to take a Benadryl after every time. And I try not to get stung, but inevitably, if they’re aggressive, I do get stung pretty often,” Rosenhoff said.

An exterminator the Lozanos hired had recommended the job to Rosenhoff. He and his friend Shane Sargent own A-Bee-Lene Beekeepers. Rosenhoff said he was floored at the situation and offered to do whatever he could to help.

“It just fascinated me because it’s been in her house for ten years… And when I saw the living room picture, I was like, oh, their living room is abandoned. They cannot go into their living room at all,” said Rosenhoff.

While they knew it would be a big job, he shared that nothing could have prepared them for what they found in that attic. By his account, the hive was the largest he had ever encountered, and they were in for a long day of work.

“I was mesmerized. I was like, man, this is a large hive. We’ve got our work cut out for us. It took us about four hours up there… I’ve gotten a couple hundred-pound hives before, but I mean, man, the weight of this one and how compact it was,” Rosenhoff said.

When the job was finished, Rosenhoff measured the hive to weigh 250 pounds. The hive had been built up and melting every summer, only for more to be built on top of it. He said the hive itself weighed 160 pounds, with the honey they took home accounting for the other 90 pounds.

“She (Lozano) was very thankful. I offered to come back and clean, and she was like, ‘No, thank you so much for being out here. It was very sweet. When people get their space back, it’s a cool situation… It’s why I got into it, like, I wanna help whoever I can,” Rosenhoff shared.

The Lozanos still have some cleaning up to do. Honey and beeswax are still plaguing a few parts of their home, and they need to rebuild the living room ceiling, but Lozano said she is just happy to be able to breathe a sigh of relief knowing that she finally has her home back.