Decolonisation

The water supply needs tlc. I bleed the house system, but the main tanks aren’t full. So, after all guests have left, I get the pump running. Then I check the spring. The supply pipe needs rodded.

Depleted, I watch a movie to recuperate. Mike calls. It’s time to remove the colony of bees that has been resident on his gable for the past few years.

We suit up, climb ladders, and bravely assault the soffit with crow bars. The inner space is full of honeycomb, black with age. Not to mention thousands of bees.

We prise the comb out in sticky chunks, collecting it in a cardboard box. This is then arranged in the base of an empty hive, crowned with four empty frames. There’s no way to tell if the queen survived except wait and see.

I have a quiet tea, and return to movieland. Angus, meanwhile, is couch surfing in Bonn at a beer festival.