OK so it wasn't today, but last week just after dropping the kids off at school I was chased down the village by an elderly lady, "Jim, there are some bees in our hedge" my immediate thought was bumbles, the same as the last 'swarm' in our tenant's bird-box.
The wife, the dog and I walked back with her and there in the hedge between them and the village hall was a lovely sized swarm; apparently they had been there since 4pm the day before so I decided I'd better get my skates on.
I rushed back home grabbed my as yet unused skep, my beesuit, smoker, secateurs, sheets and all the other gubbins I thought I may need and rushed back up the village. I gave the bees a quick spritz with water to keep them there and set everything up. The swarm was at chest height and attached to a couple of spindly twigs, the skep slipped under the swarm and a quick shake of the hedge and they were in the skep. I flipped it over onto the sheet, propped it up a little and watched as the remaining bees slowly went in to join the queen. I trimmed the hedge where they had started to build wax while I waited. After about 45 mins there were only about ten or fifteen bees in the air so I decided to wrap up the skep and cart it home. I must admit I got some strange looks walking dutifully behind the wife and dog through the village with my beesuit on and a buzzing parcel in my arms.
I didn't have the time to hive them that night, so I left them overnight in the garage still in the skep. The following evening I said to Mrs B I'm going to walk them into a hive "What?" was the reply, closely followed after a brief description by "Why?"
"Because I want to try it".
"You're mad, isn't it easier to tip them in?"
"Yes, but I'm not going to"
"They're your bees, but don't think I'm helping you fetch them out of a tree when they b****r off"
"It's OK the neighbour will help me"
So there I am with the hive set up, a ramp to the entrance with a cloth over it, 3lb of bees in a skep and an audience consisting of my wife and two kids all suited up and the dog who wasn't. I tipped the bees out and they all sat there in a buzzing and untidy heap, after five minutes or so they were still there and the seeds of doubt were germinating. After what seemed like a lifetime there were suddenly half a dozen bees inspecting the hive entrance closely followed by a steady stream of them, phew!
We watched them slowly move in but had a more than mild panic when we saw the queen who was walking around the entrance take off, "STAND STILL, DON'T MOVE" were my first words and everyone did apart from the dog, who doesn't like raised voices. Thankfully we shortly saw the queen had returned and was skipping over the top of the other bees and darting into the hive.
The end result is that they are still here nearly a week on, Mrs B has been telling everyone how fascinating it was to watch, the kids have had some wild comb from the skep to take to 'show and tell' and the dog came back.
The bizarre thing about it all was that I became a keeper of bees (I don't know enough to be a beekeeper yet) on the 18th of May (my birthday) last year when I and a real beekeeper collected a swarm from the local tech college and I collected this swarm, on my own this time, on my birthday too; if it happens again next year I'll let you know.
[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tMD2v90EL8M"]Video of the queen finally going into the hive[/ame]
) that I tried to lock in a box as we were heading out Thursday after they'd tried to leg it back into the hedge twice. They were tucked under the roof of the big htbh with three combs...
