Retrieving a swarm from a chimney

A long dry spell has led to another swarmy Spring. So, I've been called out a few times to retrieve swarms from gardens; I've also been catching swarms in my own bait boxes.

A swarm settled into a neighbour's chimney.

A couple of weeks ago, I was called out by a neighbour to advise how they could get a swarm of bees out of their chimney. I advised the homeowner to light a small fire in their fireplace, if it was safe to do so. 
After a while, the bees left the chimney and bivouacked in the next-door neighbour's front garden, on the trunk of a small tree.

The honey bee swarm congregated onto a nucleus hive.

From there, the challenge was to get the colony away from the neighbour's property, so I placed a small beehive (nucleus) with a frame of old comb in it on the wheelie bins, close to the tree. They quickly moved onto the nuc', but weren't able to find the front door.

The swarm was laced in a normal sized hive.

Finally, I decided to use the traditional method of honey bee swarm capture, and shook the bees down into a cardboard box, then tipped it over on to a blanket on the floor.
The bees then clustered inside the ceiling of the box, allowing me to collect them early the next morning.

Their now in a normal hive, at the Addlestone Moor apiary, and will likely be producing a little honey this year.

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