Out of the Frying Pan?

After my last Post - you will be forgiven for saying 

"What the heck are you thinking?" 

This project has been on the back-burner (or rather still in a box in the bungalow) for a couple of years.  And around here, things have a habit of bumping themselves up the "To Do" list.

This one came about 4 weeks ago, when my DD rang and asked "How's your Flow Hive Going?"

I knew it could only mean One Thing - We had a Swarm to Catch and rehome. 

Fortunately they had settled on the side of a Tree Pot in the Garden of a friend who lives close by.

Unfortunately - we had no idea whether the Queen was under the rim of the pot.

If we could have picked the pot up and shaken them into the Swarm Box it would have been a lot easier, but it was firmly rooted to the ground!

Bee swarms are normally quite docile as they are full of honey for the trip - however scooping up handfuls of them was a strange experience.

We left the Girls to settle into the Box overnight and came back the following evening to transport them to a new location which had to be more than 4-5 km away (or else they could return).

Which is HOW we ended up with our own Bees.

While they settled in to Life at Our Place....

We set about Constructing and Sealing our Western Red Cedar Flow Hive 2 for them to live in.

It went together very easily, with everything we needed including the tools and 'some extra bits in case you need them'.

With the Hive ready, it was time to place it in position. 

Even though the Hive has TWO inbuilt spirit levels - DH just had to check with his own before he was satisfied it was correctly levelled.

Now to Check on their progress and move them into their new "Forever Home".

They seem to have a calm temperament, all looks good - And we have new Brood.

A final check this evening showed us that they have happily moved house.

Our hope now is that they will go up into the Flow Super and start working in there - I am sure it will be more preferable to building in the rafters.

So we just need to 'Leave them Bee' to get on with what they do best!