Wednesday began as an ordinary day.
Then there was a phone call at 4pm. A swarm of honey bees had landed in a garden in Impington, 4 miles away and the swarm warden could meet me there at 8pm. 4 whole hours!!!! I was like a cat on a tin roof! Amazingly I did not chop any fingers off while cooking, and at 7-50pm Mark grabbed his camera, I donned my white telly tubby suit, and off we set.
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| The first time bee keeper in pristine white suit! |
We arrived, met the swarm warden (the volunteer who take calls from distressed villagers saying "Help! There's a swarm of bees in my garden"), and wondered down the road to the find the swarm.
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| Does my bum look big in this? (comments with answers to this will be censored...) |
And there it was. A huge, beautiful swarm clustered around some branches of a privet bush.
They did not look like the usual north European bees, which have black bodies. They are classic stripey orange and black bees - classic, but not like any I've have come across so far. I wonder what their story is?
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| Mark thought they looked a bit like a giant Tiger's Eye rock in a tree. |
First we had to prune away a little of the greenery, then our swarm lady got on the ladder with the secateurs while I stood underneath with my ready prepared (ir. holes blocked up!) cardboard box. Very high tech...
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| Another bizarre and new experience in the Strivens household... |
Then, plop, in the fell! They were quite a weight. By the time we had snipped all four branches and dropped the clusters of bees in, a few of them had flown off the swarm, so it was time to quickly close the lid...
wrap it up in a sheet, and put it in the car... (note seat belt - Mark was worried about having a bee box on the head in case of an emergency stop!)
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| This boxful with the main swarm in it was humming gently. Ahhhh. |
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Time to wait a while for the AWOL bees to re-cluster in their original position, and try to catch them in a second box. A few still got away, but we were confident that we had the queen in the main box, so into the car with the second box, and a slightly nervous Mark (not in a bee suit) drove us home on the smoothest drive he has ever done in his life!
The second box, with bees in a cluster and no queen, were a good deal less happy than the first - they BUZZED very loud all the way home. BBBBBBZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ
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| Not a very Royal way for a queen to be welcomed to her new Palace |
Box one opened and unceremoniously dumped into the empty brood box. Shake shake bash. A few left on the sides, but most went in.
On a nice warm sunny evening, the fun way to do this is to put the sheet on the ground and place a ramp up to the hive entrance. Put the swarm on the sheet and watch them march up the ramp (Bees ALWAYS walk upwards, never down) and into the hive. It was too late and too cold for that on Wednesday.
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| Note the expensive equipment: rubber washing up gloves! |
Next it was time to remove the privet branches and shake of the hangers-on. Well, most of them.
All this time I am having to watch that I don't accidentally shake the queen onto the ground. She is impossible to see in the swarm....
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| In goes box two. They calmed down quickly once they were back with the rest. |
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| Gently and slowly placing in the wax starter frames, avoiding squashing the bees |
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| A lovely site - worker bees at the entrance with their backsides in the air! They are fanning their wings rapidly to send off a pheromone which tells the other bees "Here is a good place for a nest, come on in!" |
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| A few bees did not want to leave me - I am not sure whether they were thinking I was a threat or a flower petal. | |
I wasn't stung once throughout the whole episode. Unfortunately, after it was all over, Mark did get stung by a couple of adventurers that were stuck to my suit as I walked away from the hive. Another got tangled in my hair, but we brushed it out intact - obviously good tempered little things.
Mission accomplished. I had a feeder-pail of sugar syrup ready to feed the bees - popped that over a hole in the crown board, super over that and then the lid. Now I have to leave them alone for a couple of weeks while they pull out the wax starter to make comb, and the queen gets to laying eggs.
By nightfall, all the stragglers and tail fanners had crept into their new home, and there was a low contented humming coming from the hive. Utterly delightful.
