Is That a Swarm in That Tree?

After a lovely break in Cornwall, confident that the bees should be fine, it was great to come back and see how things had progressed in the garden and allotment. I had thought of the posts I could write about the Lost Gardens of Heligan and the Eden Project ( and these will be written!). Sunday was a day to catch up with those jobs that always need doing when you have been away- including checking the bees at Waxwings but the others needed leaving a bit longer to give the new queen time to hatch and mate.
During the afternoon I decided to do some tidying up in the garden- around 5.30 my back started to complain so I began to tidy up. Mmm, quite a few bees round the pond I thought and looked up into the Viburnam that hangs over the water. There, fairly high up in the bush was a lovely, calm swarm of bees just hanging there- the odd one flying out and back. Were they ours? Probably, I had thought the hive didn't seem quite right but we had been VERY careful about only leaving one good queen cell. Had they tried to make an emergency queen cell from a larva that was too old? One thing I have learnt from these bees- they like to swarm, whatever I do!
So, feeling a sense of responsibilty and wondering just how long they had been there- out came the nappy box and white sheet again- a branch loped off and the swarm collected. The only problem, no more equipment, I had ordered nucleus boxes before we went away for just this eventuality but had been let down. After a phone call on Saturday I had been promised delivery on Wednesday, not much good now with a swarm to find a home for. The only thing available was a travelling box made of Correlex, luckily I had got 5 brood frames to put in it, so that was it.
The bees took a while to get in the box, so I had time to make up the frames and we got ready to take them straight up to Waxwings. Hopefully the neighbours up there were not too concerned that as it was just starting to get dark 2 people dressed in full beekeeping gear were wandering around. The travelling box was surrounded by bricks to keep it secure and the bees shaken in- alot of them didn't make it, so we fashioned a little ramp out of wood and shook them onto that and left them walking up. After about half a hour they were all more or less settled. We left them to it- today it is cool and raining, so maybe they will stay for a bit rather than get wet, we will just have to wait and see- hopefully those wooden nucs will arrive in time for them to make a home for another colony of our swarmed bees !

It was a lovely evening, there were bats flying around as we left Waxwings, but at 10 o'clock on a Sunday night we were wondering- what had we done before bees?!

Makeshift ramp and home for bees!



Rainy Monday and they're still there!!