Ok, so we were ready with one hive which we thought we'd take to the Community Field at the allotment plot, and had just started the next to go on the Waste Recycling Site and are still just getting started laying out the allotment area.....when on Thursday 5th MAY, a work colleague came in just after lunch time saying, "Look at this, there's all yellow wasps in a tree by my house, they're horrible!" Robyn's ears pricked up and she went over to look at the pics on our colleagues mobile phone. Robyn called me over to look, and all I could see was a brown mass, " They can't be wasps, they don't swarm, come on Robyn, lets go and have a look they could be bees!" Robyn (now an expert after an introductory bee keeping course) was all fired up and beat me out to the car. "What if it is a swarm?" I nervously asked as we drove to Sadie's house location,"Lets wait and see when we get there" came the reply "and put your foot down!"
We got to the house, and I saw nothing, must have gone I thought letting out a bit of a sigh or relief. "Look! there they are" as Robyn pointed to a large brown mass of bees half way up a small tree. I couldn't hear any buzzing, but could hear my heart beating ten to the dozen, op oh I'm not going to like this I thought as I looked at Robyn all keen to use her new skills....... one day introductory course and a couple of You Tube videos sounded to me that we were going in to deep to quickly!! This is picture of the swarm when we arrived...
There was no buzzing from the bees, but Robyn was buzzing with excitement and went to have a close look, without any protection!!! "What are we going to do now??" came out in a weak voice so that I wouldn't disturb the bees. "We've got to have a go" Robyn replied "They're bees, our bees!" We moved back and considered what to do. Well, we had no beekeeping gear, we had the locations for the hives, had a hive ready and now we had the bees, except they were not in the hive!! that's all we had to do........get them into our hive.
"Ok, we need something, I wouldn't mind having a go if we had something to protect our faces" I nervously voiced trying not to be the first one to be chickening out, and hoping that Robyn would have the sense(and training) to say we were not experienced enough........"What about getting a hat and some net curtain, we can then get a box and just shake the tree and get them in!" she answered much to quickly, which was bad news as I now knew that Robyn was serious and I was being drawn ever so deeper into a plan that was getting out of control and was sure to involve some pain along the way!
"We can nip up to Cheshire Oaks, plenty of shops there" Robyn shouted over her shoulder as she marched to the car, "And we'd better be quick before someone else comes and gets our bees" On the way to Cheshire Oaks, Robyn's plan evolved, "Once we've got the hats, we can wrap over the net curtain and tuck it into our jackets, and we must get a sheet as well. Then we go back to the depot and get a cardboard box, some tape" "This plan is what I would like to call a Humpty Dumpty plan, held together with sticking plaster and sure to fall apart" I joked to break the silence, but Robyn being from South Africa had no time for jokes and probably didn't know who Humpty Dumpty was, was already dialing into U-Tube on her mobile phone for more pieces to her plan, "Oh, look here, these beekeepers are using a brush to get them in" "And look here, it says swarm bees are very gentle this is going to be easy!"
After looking in a couple of shops no suitable hats could be found, "Things were brightening up" I thought to myself as I trailed around after Robyn willing that no hats would be found and then I could say "At least say we tried, Robyn, there will be other swarms and bees don't worry". "Look, over there in the sale section, those hats have a wide brim, perfect!" she finished as she tried on the hat looking in the mirror "And only £3.40 each" she carried on as she marched to the pay counter.
£3.40 to save my face from a thousand bee stings, seemed at odds to all my Health & Safety training and experience of running various Waste Recycling Facilities, as I was drawn deeper and deeper into the plan that everything was slowing down into slow motion and had seemed to become surreal, and then we were back at Sadie's in front of the hive, where the last 15 minutes had gone I didn't know, what the next 30 minutes had in store, I didn't want to know as I came back to a sort of reality/unreality as Robyn had already donned her hat and opened the packet of net curtains and was in the process of tucking a bunch of the net curtain down the collar of her jacket.........all I could think about was that I had become Michael Jackson and Robyn had turned into Blanket! this was Bad, so so Bad!
..."Right! this is what were going to do..." Robyn barked out her orders as she marched up and down the length of the car, gesticulating this way and that and with a final flourish of her hands ended with, "and then we'll have them in the box!" whatever she had said was not computing within my brain as I looked towards the bees and back to Robyn's angry stare, "Well, lets get on with it!" she ordered reminding me of the chief cat without thumbs as he advanced towards the man with the milk carton!
"I'll put the box underneath and you give the bees a good brush" she barked again, as I got into position. "On three!" she shouted over the buzzing which seemed to be getting louder. I took a deep breath, and thought about clonking Robyn on the head with the brush to knock some sense into her....."Hurry up! do it!" Robyn buzzed as a bead of sweat rolled down my forehead "What am I doing here?" was all I could think getting ready to drop the brush and run, "THREE!" shouted Robyn and I pushed the brush againt the mass of bees, which felt all funny but I couldn't see much as through the net curtain all I could just see was a dark outline. I dropped the brush and left Robyn there as I ran to the back of the car before I turned around to have a look. I thought I'd left Robyn there, but she was already at the back of the car! she was the dark outline I had saw! and had left the box on the floor just as I had brushed at the bees, some of which had gone into the box, a lot were still left on the branch and even more were now flying angrily around!
No Robyn!
Robyn blustered out of breath, "Just come to get the bars for top of the box!".... as we both waited for the bees to calm down somewhat. "Well, that went quite well" she continued as she gingerly looked over to the box.
Robyn placed the top bars across the box had had a good look, "There fanning, there fanning!" she cried, at which I knew from reading up that we had been so lucky and must have got the queen in the box as the other bees were 'fanning' with the wings to send the sent of the queen bee to the other bees to let them know where to go.
Top bars on box, bees going in!
After about 45 minutes, miraculously the bees went into the box and Robyn started doing some strange type of aboriginal rain dancing, or so it seemed to me until she saw me looking and brushed down her yellow flash jacket, "Just making sure no bees in my jacket!" she finished as she made her way over inspect the box.
It was now getting late and so it was decided that as we had not got the hive up to the location on the allotment that it the best thing to do was to come back in the morning, early at 6.00am with the new hive and package up the bees and then take the bees and the hive in my car.........I just agreed, as it had been decided!
The next moring I thought I would be first there as I only lived around the corner from Sadies, less than 1 mile so at 5.45am I did not expect to see Robyn already there as she had to travel from Saltney some 12 miles away. As I walked over towards the bees I could see Robyn was bending down towards the box and I could hear a slight muttering but couldn't quite make it out. Robyn looked up, "Oh! your here then" see acted surprised straightening up.
She had already 'packaged' up the bees in the cardboard box by placing a towel over the top bars and then folding the sheet over the top of the box to contain the bees in had finished off the package with masking tape to hold the sheet in place....."You don't have to do anything, I've done it all, my bees........our bees" she quickly added "Are all ready to go....I'll just put them in the car, you can clean up all that other stuff" she ordered as she carried the box ever so gently over to the car.
Robyn had changed, she had started acting nervously and kept glancing left and right and had not let me near the bees at all, which was great in my opinion but something was wrong, it felt wrong!
I quickly cleaned up and went over to the rear of the car, Robyn had her head close to the box and I could see her lips moving and could hear that muttering again, only this time I could make out a couple of the words "My precious!" I heard and saw Robyn put two fingers to her lips and then patted the top of the box as she closed the boot to the car.
We set off to the allotment, driving carefully as possible trying to miss all the bumps and holes in the road in case this got the bees angry and they came out of the box, which they shouldn't as they had been taped in.....by Robyn,...... I thought, and as she was acting all strange I just couldn't settle. Surprisingly the bees made no sound at all, no buzzing, nothing......surprisingly Robyn started to hum to herself as she made her way to the center of her 'happy mode' and not surprisingly I was already at the center of the 'scared *hi*less mode' as we drove down the A41 with her humming and 20,000 bees in a cardboard box!
"Oh, look at all those loverly flowers" Robyn voiced looking out of the window as we sped on. "Flowers? what flowers?" I thought, all I could see were weeds and dandilions along the road verge....."I'm getting a bit hungry now" she carried on licking her lips. My heat sank and strange as it was, I was wishing that I was back with 'blanket' and not this thing Robyn was turning into! I put my foot down regardless of any potholes or bumps I needed out of this car, and fast!
We arrived at last and I jumped out quickly, but magicly Robyn appeared at the rear of the car without making a sound and was now opening the boot, "I'll take these" she pronouced as she picked up the box of bees "You get the hive and I'll meet you up by the pond" she reaglly carried on.
" My Precious!"
The hive was lugged and carried over a couple of fields to the choosen location of our first hive, taking about 15 minutes on my own, as Robyn had decided to stay with the bees. "What have you been doing, you could have come back and helped me!" I questioned "Oh nothing" she relpied not giving any more explanation, but I could see that the sheet covering the bees had been loosened and now had no masking tape around it......
The hive was set up and moved into location, and then moved again and again until Robyn was sure it was right...."Too windy" "Not enough sun" "Not a nice view for the bees!"......and for a moment in my minds eye I could see Michael holding Robyn over the balcony and not Blanket, "Let her go!" came a shout from the crowd.....for a moment!
Robyn picked up her precious bees and tipped the lot of them striaght into the hive, no messing about, just tipped them in! The air turned black as it filled with bees buzzing this way and that and there stood in the middle of them as if in the middle of a thunder and lightning storm was Robyn,..... grinning and grinning "Don't worry, I'm the queen!" I thought I heard until she said it again, "Don't worry, I've got the queen in!" she mouthed as I backed further and further away.
Eventually the bees followed the sent of the queen into the hive, althought I did see Robyn have to knock a real big cluster of bees from her sleve into the hive and she started to put the top bars onto the hive creating a roof to the hive.
We had done it! and with no stings we were now the proud owners of a hive with 20,000 bees although when I looked over at Robyn........ 20,001. This unexpected bonus of building our first hive, capturing our first swarm, not getting any stings, and finding a suitable location has meant that we are in a position to help more bees "But how can we help more?" I ventured to Robyn....."I know, let's get our names down with Pest Control they're bound to have some contacts for other swarms, this was easy, come on, let's do it!" she finished as she picked up a dandilion and started munching on it, "Well, I am hungry!" she smiled......
First Hive...with Blanket!
