They were indeed up a tree just behind a family's garden. They were on a fairly thick branch I could just reach by hand. I initially thought I'd just cut off the branch carry it down to the nuc and shake the bees in but that would've meant removing about a third of the tree top which I didn't fancy doing to the tree and wasn't certain I'd be able to support it from it's lowest point one handed from if I did. Instead I cut away some smaller branches so I could get in towards the bees then ratchet strapped my nuc brood box to the floor and carried it up the ladder along with my bee brush. Pushing the brood box and nuc under the cluster I gave the branch a sharp shake dislodging bees into the box and onto myself and quickly gave the branch a sweep with the brush. Then I carried the box of now rather confused bees and added some frames. with a large proportion of the bees in the box I then had to mop up the smaller clusters of remaining bees. climbing back up the ladder I cut of the twigs being occupied by little clusters and shoo each on top f the frames. At one point I had to nip down the ladder and whip off my jacket as a worker bee had decided to join me in my veil. Not what you want at anytime really and certainly not what you need when you're up a ladder with not much but bees to hold onto.
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| Dizzying heights of beekeeping |
Whilst I removed the bee from my veil a few of the remaining clusters grew as flying bees rejoined their sisters on the branch. I got most of those by knocking them into a plastic tub and then tipping that over the top bars in the nuc. I also gave the tree a thorough smoking to cover any pheromones still attracting bees to it.
The bits of tree I'd cut off I placed in the plastic tub and they'll be going in a composter later. I left the nuc with the crownboard partially on for flying bees to make their way in for a while, it was late evening when I'd arrived and was getting dark by the time I left. Two swarms in two days. Busy times.
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