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 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.
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.
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.
