Yes, I know! But just be thankful. Because my other choices included,

“Two Bee (hives) or not two Bee (hives)” and “Bee-gora, there’s another one!” and many others, equally as cringe-worthy 🙂

This is another post that has been waiting in the wings (so to speak – and no, I’m not going to stop) for me to get around to finishing.

A few weeks after setting up the first of my own bee hives, my beekeeping mate, Pete, called me and asked, “Are you at home?”

“I’m at Kinglake”, I replied, “but I should be home by 10:00pm, why?”

“Oh, a friend of mine who works at Southbank called me and said there was a swarm on a tree outside their office and asked if I was able to remove it, so I thought that if you wanted a second hive, this would be a good way to do it.”

“Absolutely!” I said without hesitation, “I’ve got enough frames to make up another hive so, no worries”.

“OK, I should get to your place around 10:30pm, see you then”

As I headed home, I thought about the turn of events. I’d missed out on collecting two swarms in the backyard but, in the space of a few weeks, I was going to have two hives of my own. It would be interesting to see what these bees were like especially since they were right in the heart of the Melbourne.

Anyway, I set up the hive in the backyard and Pete arrived just as I finished. He said that it was an interesting experience being in the heart of the city with his beekeeping gear on collecting a swarm. His friend had kindly given him an office storage box to collect the bees.

 

 

 

 

 

 

So, armed with a small flashlight, used sparingly to prevent the bees from attacking, we took out four frames to make some room and then we (read Pete) opened the cardboard box and upended the bees into the hive.

 

 

 

 

A few more shakes of the box and the majority of the bees were in the hive 🙂

We weren’t worried about the spillover as they would find their way in.

 

 

 

 

 

 

The frames were slowly lowered into the hive.

As long as you move things slowly the bees will flow like honey (!) around them.

 

 

 

 

 

The lid was put on and secured.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And the rest of the stragglers were unceremoniously dumped on the ground in front of hive to find their own way in.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We just had to check there were no stragglers on Pete before he got changed, then we packed up and called it a night.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The next morning, I checked and they had settled into their new home just fine.

 

 

 

They took a little while to start building up their numbers but that was to be expected but they are going from strength to strength now and they look like they are very good quality bees and they are reasonably docile.

We tried to figure out where they might have come from and we suspect that they may be from one of the hives that a number of hotels are keeping in the city now for fresh honey and pollination of their herb gardens etc. Wherever they came from, they’re a busy bunch of buzzing bees 🙂

Strange how things turn out, but…What will BEE, will BEE! (Told you I wouldn’t stop 😉 )