Friday, June 13, 2014

Friday 13th or Bee swarm!!!

I've often wondered how Friday 13th superstition of bad luck came about! Well nothing bad was going to happen today! or have I spoken too soon.....

It was a beautiful hot day and the laundry was drying almost as quickly as I could hang it out. One of my tortoises had laid an egg but that's another story!!! One little mishap Embee ran the lawn mower over the wire and snapped it, he didn't get an electric shock just had to buy connecters and make a repair. While he was doing this I met up with a friend for our Friday swim, it was very pleasant and not many people there even better. 
My friend gave me a lift home and was coming in for a cup of tea and to collect some toys and games I had found out for her grand daughter. As we arrived outside our house the area above the back wall was black with a buzzing swarm of bees. I could not believe what I was seeing never having been close to a real swarm before. My first thought 'must get the camera this is good blog material'!! It probably should have been mustn't get too close!!
Funnily enough I wasn't worried about getting stung and they didn't seem interested in me even when I went quite close. After making tea I went back to take another look and thought they had gone but not so they had formed a huge block on my blueberry bush about a ft sq. 

I wasn't quite sure what to do but looked at the local council's pest control and saw a link for bees and from there I found a list of people who collected bees. Top of the list was someone who lived a mile from my home. I rang him and he said he could come immediately, I was impressed. He went on to explain that as he was going away for the weekend so he would need to leave the collection hive in my garden and collect on Monday. Not a problem in fact I was actually very interested. Gareth was as good as his word and arrived very quickly, bringing a temporary hive with him. He then proceeded to transfer the bees......
Dressed for action. Gareth said the bees were a gentle swarm but said if they started buzzing near your face that was a warning and to keep away. Sounds like good advice!

Getting the temp hive in place

Moving the bees

By the handful

Tom is inspecting the interlopers and he was not happy!

One of the blueberry branches laden with fruit had to be sacrificed  so that Gareth could reach the bees and make sure he got the queen in the centre of the heaving mass!

It seems to have worked and the stragglers are  leaving the blueberry bush and moving to the hive!


No one has been stung (so far) and I will be watching them carefully over the weekend and hopefully they will remain and be moved to their forever home on Monday. I am very grateful to Gareth for his prompt action and I'm hoping they produce some honey for him!! 

 Reflecting on my Friday 13th it's been an interesting day!!!

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4 Comments:

At 13/6/14 19:06, Anonymous Anonymous said...

You were lucky to have someone so close by!!

 
At 13/6/14 19:58, Blogger ChrisB said...

John he was a young chap really lovely, and said he was just getting into bee keeping, so yes very lucky and I'm thankful for his help :)

 
At 13/6/14 20:06, Blogger Pamela said...

we had something similar happen probably 30 years ago. It was fun to see the bee man in action. It was in our back yard.

So glad you knew what to do and saved the bees!

 
At 15/6/14 14:23, Blogger ChrisB said...

Pamela I do feel quite pleased that they will be saved, I'm hoping if they produce honey I might get given a jar!!!! LOL

 

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