Saturday 26 May 2012

And then there were two......

Its been roasting in London this week so I was incredibly happy when I managed to get away from the office a little early on Friday afternoon.  Little did I know that it was going to be a fortunate start to a great weekend.


I was quietly enjoying a mug of tea and reading the local paper when I got a text from a friend:


"There's a swarm of bees on a small tree at the end of the driveway at number x on the main road...are any of yours missing?"

Well mine haven't filled their hive yet so the chances of them being so crowded that they felt the need to swarm was pretty unlikely...but when it comes to bees (s)he who collects the swarm gets to keep the swarm.... I've NEVER collected a swarm ...but I know a man who has.  A quick jog across the road to explain the situation and the ghost-busters Swarm Busters swang into action.
They took a minute or three to find (note to self always triple check the house number) but there they were...
So a quick conversation with the householder to check she was happy for us to snip a branch off her tree (she couldn't have looked more relieved) and we suited up (traffic chaos ensued) and set about the job.
In the box.... easy as one, two,snip...
A few scouting bees continued to circle - hopefully they will find their way home and be accepted back into their original hive.  But these girls were coming home with me...
A quick trip to borrow another piece of kit from across the road-  this time a nucleus box, or nuc, and we were ready to home them.  Or we would have been if I'd have had more kit ready ... first I needed to steal some frames from my first hive so they would have something to get started on..
 
Then we rather unceremoniously tipped them in.... well it was nearly tea time and we were getting hungry..
 
And those that didn't fall into the nuc? ..well they just have to find their own way home, most of them walked in...
 

So my plans for a relaxing weekend of quilting in the sunshine appeared to be shot to pieces... well nearly .....'im indoors has rallied to the the rescue and is bravely going to take a very long shopping list for bee hive kit to the apiary tomorrow afternoon so that I can spend tomorrow evening (when I get home from quilting day) making hive number 2.





2 comments:

  1. Wow Helen you're so very brave!!!! However not as brave as N next to you with no bee suit!!!! So glad I the swarm busters direct number! Enjoy hive building, I'm off to the sea side...

    ReplyDelete
  2. Yeah - the little blighter snuck into get a closer look - one day he'll get stung and I'll be able to go "told you so!" ...after I've dried the tears!!

    ReplyDelete

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...