A Swarm of bees in May is Worth a Load of Hay

After my last disappointment with the bees, I was reluctantly coming to the conclusion that perhaps my beekeeping days were over. I was ready to offload all my equipment and concentrate on less baffling projects. A lifetimes association though, is hard to abandon, and so I prevaricated hoping that something might turn up. The swarming season was coming to an end and with no signs of bees anywhere else to acquire, my thoughts turned elsewhere, mainly towards Thistledew my ancient campervan, and taking to the road again.
So, a visit to Mill Garage in Duns (brilliant people with motor caravans and vehicles in general) was required to get an MOT sorted. As I walked in to the workshop Jimmy the owner looked up and said "David, just the man I wanted to see." OH, oh, I thought. Jimmy is one of this world`s jokers and is always game to pull your leg, so I was not sure what to think when he told me that a swarm had landed in his son`s garden, and would I like to go and see it? Every time I see Jimmy he gently and comically refers to my stolen bees, so I was ready for the joke which must surely follow. But no, this time he was serious and phoned his son to tell him that he had seen me.

I drove the short distance to Stephen and Leslie`s house to look and sure enough, a lovely semi prime swarm was settled in a text book position on the edge of their garden hedge about 2 feet above the ground.

Perfect.

The capture of the swarm was easily accomplished, gently shaking the swarm into the shallow super that I placed under it.

I left them until the evening, when I returned and found that they had all settled down. I secured the pack and loaded the new acquisition into my van for the uneventful journey to my new apiary site in the woods near my home.

This all happened on Friday, I left them to settle over the weekend, and this morning with some slight trepidation, Meghan and I paid a visit at 07.00 to check. No need to have worried they were busy doing what bees do at this time of year, coming and going with full pollen baskets and hopefully full honey stomachs, as if oblivious to the fact they were in a completely new location several miles from their previous home.

So a big thank you is owed to Jimmy, Stephen and Leslie and an even bigger thank you to Rebecca for the photographs.

Non beekeepers may wonder about the title to this blog.

It is from the old beekeepers mantra from the days when bees were kept in skeps, and the only way of keeping bees was to start each season with a new swarm and destroy it in the autumn to garner the crop. Thankfully we don`t have to do that these days. The full rhyme goes something like this :-

A swarm of bees in May is worth a load of hay,

A swarm of bees in June is worth a silver spoon,

But a swarm of bees in July isn`t worth a fly.

An incoming swarm of bees in any month is nowadays most welcome although they have been very shy over the last few years.

Tomorrow I plan to place a new brood chamber box under the shallow super and give the bees a sugar syrup feed to help them quickly draw foundation into those magnificently intricate combs, which will fill with brood and continue natures way of strengthening the new fragile colony.

Perhaps next year I can steal some of their hard won stores..............

What about Thistledew? Do I hear you say.

Well, after a bit of skillful welding at Mill Garage, a new MOT certificate was presented, so more money to part with for Road Fund Licence and we are off down to Hampshire for a farewell party at my son Adrian's house on Saturday. It will be great to see him, Lucy and baby Thomas again.

The farewell part?

Well, Adrian has been appointed Commanding Officer of the Falkland Islands Royal Navy Patrol Vessel/Guard Ship HMS Clyde and will be on Southern Atlantic Patrol duties for the next six months.

He leaves on Sunday for a `2 leg` 19 hour flight (via Ascension Island) leaving Brize Norton at midnight. Arriving in the Falklands Monday evening....... Bon Voyage Son.

So all in all we have had an exciting last few days, with hopefully more to follow.

We are hoping to travel north from Hampshire taking the best part of the week to make our way leisurely through Wales camping en route, to my sisters home near Chester for yet another party on the following Saturday. This time it will be Pam and Geoff`s 40th wedding anniversary........

Note to Phillip H. We are thinking of your dear wife`s admission to BGH today for the hip replacement operation.

We do hope that it goes well and that she will soon be chasing you around again. Give her our love., and you behave yourself whilst she is away!