At 1 o'clock yesterday lunchtime I was informed that our bees had swarmed and were in fact congregated on the gatepost of Blackburne House. Apparently they had settled there during the May Bank Holiday weekend. Therefore we were quite lucky that they were still there by the Tuesday lunchtime.
I duly contacted our mentor, John McCann from Liverpool Beekeepers Association, but he was out. I then contacted Peter Wass and Jimmy Finn, also members of the association, who came flying to our aid. I then contacted Gaynor Clement-Evans, one of our WI volunteer beekeepers, who was in fact with John McCann and they both came running to our aid. Also for good measure Sheila Myron, the Secretary of the Liverpool association turned up, so we were not short of good advice and help.
The bees were gathered up in a box, making sure the queen was amongst them, and then the box was settled on a white sheet, to give the other bees chance to come and find her, and settle in the box. They were then left until they had stopped flying, then gathered up and taken to their new home.
The original hive was examined and all but two queen cups were removed, so that when the new queen emerged she wouldn’t have too much competition and be tempted to take off another set of bees to find a new home!
Altogether an exciting day, let's hope the new queen when she is born successfully completes her mating flight and the hive goes from strength to strength.
