As much as we love bees and plan to have a hive in our garden in the not too distant future, this particular arrangement didn’t really suit us. So a quick call to our trusty gardener Nick who has a great working relationship with bees and also happened to have a new empty hive waiting for a colony. He duly arrived, the bees had well and truly settled and Steve had made a box ready for the transfer.
It is incredible how calm the bees are when they swarm and it required no protective clothing to take them from the tree and into the box. A bit of strategic branch clipping was needed and with one last snip they slid into the box, the box was sealed for the journey to their new home and the job was done.
It was rather amazing,that during the process of moving the swarm Steve only sustained one sting and Nick none at all.
This is the second occasion we have had a swarm of bees alight at Jester House so we think there is a message in that. Steve now has the perfect excuse to get his design hat on and draw up a bee palace so that we can have a hive here. It will be situated up the hill where it is a little warmer and also away from our visitors who are sometimes a little frightened of bee hives.
We hope the bees are happy in their new home at Ngatimoti and we look forward to a wee jar of honey someday.