It is a while since last I wrote a post. Life has been a little hectic. I was expecting to have been even more hectic, as we are halfway through compromise rme season, but I have only collected a swarm so far this year. The rest of this entry is about to swarm.
A few days ago I received the pleasant calls at around 16.00 from anyone in the local city to say that he just had seen a swarm of bees land in his back garden. I had received about eight calls so far this year, but for one reason and another, I was not able to intercept the bees. So I was determined to get this one. In any case, I have two people in our area who wanted to start beekeeping – which had no bees-so that was even more pressure on me to collect. Swarm was right at the top of a pear tree – around 10-12 feet, but the owner had only a 6 ft ladder. So here I was, however, the opportunity to test my new probe catch contraption, which I had designed after the only swarm, which I do not catch properly last year (it was around 16 ft in the air – although on the call, the woman had told me it was only about 8 ft. Height from the ground and accessibility are two really important question, when catch swarms!
Nevertheless, I went to the House. It was a beautiful summer evening. I made up a very "Heath Robinson" contraption from string, duck tape all at core box used which was then connected to the end of a pole long yellow heavy expansion that painters use for painting high ceilings. It worked a treat! Here is a picture of it:
In one movement swung into the box up at the top of the tree, pretty right on top of the swarm. I assured then the handle of the bar to the top of the step ladder with some more duck tape so that the pole remained in position until it was time to swing box back down to Earth.
I went shopping for approximately one hour and waited for bees to climb in the to box. When I returned, most of them in. With a little smoke went the rest time approximately 15 minutes. I took the pole and lifted the box from the top of the tree. It was much heavier! In swung box back to Earth and placed on the market step ladder to invite the rest of the flying bees in the to box. Overall, it was a great success. Swarm was housed in my garage overnight before deciding who to give them to.
The next morning I rang the prison. They were happy. It was only the day before had they say, they wanted to have some bees. So I went over there with Andrew to put them in their new home. Since our first site visit (where we had found the old place where vodka bees were kept), prison staff had decided to move the site for new Apiary to prison gardens – behind the wire. So that is where we put the bees. It took about an hour, and I gave a short lesson at the same time. Mick, prison groundsman was enthusiastic. The bees finally returned back to prison.
Since I left through the main gate, I joked on guard that he now had around 30,000 new inmates, that none of them had names or passport, and that an entire was already break out through the fence! He laughed. A little knew how true my analysis was.
It was only yesterday did I ring Mick to find out how they got. I wanted to give him some help on his first inspection. He was quite low in spirit. He had gone in the hive in Monday and only found around 100 bees in it — even though they had very lengthy comb. Last Saturday was a very hot day, and I can only think that they had become uncomfortable in their new hive and found a better location. So swarm really had escaped.
In other words, it is back to the drawing board. We must find a location where the bees will be. I am in favour of the old site (bees of course seems to return to where they have been before. We shall see. One thing is certain, but the bees don't like be kept prisoner. They will surely buzz-off if you do not give them a good place to do their home! I think in this case, the site was a little exposed and possibly quite unpleasant in sunlight at about at 10: 00 am the next morning. We live and learn!
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