JUNE 2002
The month of June was not a day old when, on 1st June, one of our hives
swarmed, settling on a Clematis arch in the next door neighbours garden.
Unfortunately both Dad and Mum were out and Paul was at work so I could
do nothing.
Mum and Dad soon returned from their shopping to the news and when Paul
arrived home they went to deal with the bees.
Fortunately for us the bees were peaceful and the swarm was quickly captured
and easily transferred to a nucleus box.
Dad under the clemetis arch with swarm
(Swarm entering the box)
All the hives were now peacefully buzzing away, but it was shortlived.
On Thursday, 6th June Dad phoned Paul at work to say the bees had swarmed
again but fortunately this time they settled in a bush in our garden.
At least we had increased the number of hives.
Most of the bees were shaken into the nuclus box, the
rest soon landed and followed the queen into the box
Paul went to France to the Le-Mans 24 car race..... This race is on what is usually public roads. At the end of the famous Mulsane straight is a roundabout that is used as a hairpin bend in the race.... A yes right in the middle of it were some bee hives. Only in France would you get beehives in the middle of a race track. (The sad thing is though if this was the Uk no doubt hooligans would trash them as you just can't leave this kind of thing unattended in the UK).
A
Bentley roars passed the behives on the Le-Mans racetrack
The end of June was now going to be a busy time for us. We had planned
a holiday in Wales at the end of the month so, to ensure none of the hives
swarmed while we were away, we made up lots of Supers. We also put an
extra layer of supers on the hives at Flaxton and placed the swarms we
had already caught into proper full size hive boxes with frames of brood
foundation for them to expand into new honeycomb.
I hope that is enough to keep them busy while we are away.
A swarm moved into a full size brood box