The Swarm

High excitement.  As I approached the garden after the early walk I heard a sound like a peloton of cyclists; the whole garden was full of bees. I rushed into the house and shut all the windows. We’ve had a nest of bees in the old walls for years but obviously overcrowding or a new queen had forced the old queen out and she needed a new home.  You can tell I’ve been swatting up on bees.  First they all resettled around the hole in the wall and then they took off  and landed on the hawthorn tree, bending down a low branch.   C gave me the number of the Swarm Co Ordinator (who knew?) and he and their potential new owner arrived within an hour.   They were pleased they were so accessible, if they land high up it’s a whole lot more difficult to deal with. 

Apparently it’s bad luck to buy bees,  you have to wait until someone else’s swarm.  The new owner had never picked up a swarm before so he needed help.  It was all quite low tech as one would imagine given the process has evolved over millennia.  They sort of thumped the branch and the majority fell into the box.  As long as you have the Queen the rest will go in and stay in. Then you wrap the whole thing up in a big white sheet and take it away.  

The few that missed the box hung about a bit and then drifted back to the old nest.