It's 0930 on Monday 30th May, a beautiful sunny late spring morning, I’m on
the Apiary, there’s a buzz in the air and the gentle breeze is delicately
scented. Could there be better start to our day? Well, yes, if the buzz were not so very loud,
if the delicately scented air were not full of bees pouring out of hive four
and if there were not five other swarms hanging from shrubs and trees in and around
the garden.
Three of the swarms were
hanging from trees beside the rail track near the Apiary gate, one was in
amongst the brambles, beyond the fence facing hives one to four, one was on a
plant support post adjacent to the Beehaus hive and one was hanging low down on
the Buddleja globosa .
I was first on the scene, and saw hive 4 swarming, very
impressive, but by the time Colin had arrived they’d settled in the brambles on
the railway embankment. At this point I was under the impression that we’d lost
4 swarms. I told Colin we had a swarm in a tree near the pond and he walked
around there to see for himself. - You’ve
guessed it he spotted two swarms that I hadn’t seen!
Before Colin arrived on site I had also spotted a swarm
rising from one of Mick Brown’s hives and they quickly settled within 15 metres
of said hive. Colin and I decided that
this swarm had priority as we wanted to avoid any alarm amongst the allotment gardeners
nearby. We ‘tooled up’ for the collection, veils, collecting box, a five frame
Nuc, smoker etc. but by the time we’d got there, barely 5 minutes later, they’d
absconded to some unknown location. One
down and back to the Apiary.
The swarm on the Globosa and the Solanum support were easily
accessible and very quiet so we decided to start with those in the trees. We tackled the bees on the highest perch
first, and with some juggling and a precarious balancing act that would have
impressed Billy Smart, successfully recovered it. Next those on the Solanum support frame, a
doddle, quickly and happily into a 5 frame nuc, but by this time, much to our
surprise The two swarms in the other tree, those on the Globosa and those in
the brambles had all absconded! 4 – 2 to
the Bees!
To pre-empt swarms from 5 and 8 we attempted the Modified
Snelgrove manoeuvre on them. For this
you have to find the Queen. On 5 we
couldn’t find her and so performed a Demaree where all the bees are in the
lower Brood chamber (with the Queen) and all the brood is above a Queen
excluder in a new chamber. The day was
rounded off successfully on hive 8 where we found the Queen and were thus able
to carry out the intended Snelgrove operation.
Excuses? Not many,
the weather’s been cold and rainy, we’re
short of brood boxes to perform artificial swarms and Colin and I have had
other commitments at inconvenient times.
A pretty dismal management performance really but hopefully lessons have
been learnt and next year will be a glorious success.
“What’s the time Colin”?
“7:15 pm” was the reply!
What a day, where did the time go?
They say we learn by our mistakes, by the end of this season
I should qualify as a genius!
Barry
