What a lovely story! :) Thank you so much for sharing, Jane. And thank
you for hosting such a pleasant get-together again. I was so sorry to have
to leave in the middle of the swarming!
Juli
On Wed, 25 May 2022 at 19:27, Jane denby <
dmarc-noreply-outsider@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
On Saturday at the Dee Bee tea we had a lovely swarm go into our
neighbours garden. After many attempts we very sensibly decided that the
swarm was not possible to reach. My neighbour Martin was away when we had a
go, but I showed him the swarm on the Sunday. He was very keen to put up
some tower scaffolding but we persuaded him that it really was not worth it
and also tricky to get at it. We both have been watching them in the hope
that we would see them fly off to an easier place. Last night I noticed a
very tall ladder leaning against the very slender tree with the swarm in it
but decided to ignore it. I really did not want Martin ( 75 years old)
going up it!
This morning the doorbell rang very early and to my absolute surprise and
joy was Martin plus the swarm! He had been going up and down the ladder
since dawn, cutting off a side branch one at a time and then letting them
settle. How he managed to carry down the branch from a very high ladder all
by himself…he had used a butterfly net as a bee veil. It was a wonderful
sight to see!
I did a bit more trimming and shook them into a skep, the bees were
delighted to have a dark cosy place, and I have never seen such a quick
gathering in. After advice from Paul I decided to put them in the queenless
TBH straightaway. I used a leaderboard as a divider and they have separate
entrances on different sides of the TBH. No mad frenzy or fighting and so
hopefully it works and they are not too exhausted.
Martin is a gentle soul and would love a hive to watch over. He has
recently lost his beloved cat William, who was his only companion. If
anyone has an old hive they don’t want, any shape, sort or condition we
would love to take it on as a project with him. He is extremely practical
so could make do and mend! His garden is a wild oasis and I think he has
shown that he loves bees and is even maybe a bee whisperer!
Cheers Jane
