h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

I received two swarm calls yesterday. The first wasn't honeybees. The second may be... the pictures the lady sent me look exactly like honeybees except hairier than any I've seen before. Still, there are so many imported honeybees and mongrels that it's hard to be sure. So I'm preparing to go and bag them. The lady with the possible swarm problem thinks they're in a nicely manicured bush in her garden and their scouts might be investigating her air bricks. It probably won't be possible to get them without doing some damage to the bush. But if they go into the air bricks and make their home under the lady's floor, it'll be difficult and expensive for her to get them out. It'll be a job for builders then - and most builders wouldn't want to tackle that sort of job.

Let us tarry not! Got to get my tools lined up ready.



PS Prepared for disappointment - there are thousands of different species of bees and some look very similar to honeybees. We'll just have to see...

Tib, I hope all went well with no mishaps. Were they honey bees You really have got in to this now haven't you?

I got some honey off my beekeeper last week and he was telling me he lost about half of his bees last winter Glad yours survived ok.

Take care,

Websailor

Tut! Didn't go in the end. Bit of a fiasco I suppose. In my uncertainty, I emailed the photos to our Association Trustees: beekeepers with hundreds of years of experience between them. First, just before I was about to leave, I got a reply from my glorious leader (the man who recruited me to the swarm collecting team) saying he thought they were mason bees. So I rang the lady and said don't panic, it looks as though they're only mason bees so, come winter, they'll all be gone. End of problem. A short time after that, another trustee emailed me with "not honey bees". Just flat, like that. No note of doubt. So it was a relief that I hadn't taken a load of time off to drive miles for nothing. Then, in the evening, I got an email from our main man, saying he thought they looked like the real thing and I should go and get 'em. THEN I got an email from one of the officers, saying they WERE honey bees and I shouldn't hang around or I'd lose them. BH! I reckon the first 2 who said NOT honeybees, must have about 120 years' experience between them, and the 2 who said YES honeybees, must have about 80-90 years' between them. And if that doesn't just go to show how hard it can be to tell a honeybee from some of the other species (and there are thousands - but most don't behave or look so similar to honeybees), then I must be even dafter than I look

I did tell the lady she was welcome to get back to me if the bees seemed very numerous and she happened to see where their colony was situated. The most vexing thing about it is, yesterday, when I was all prepared to go and bag my first swarm, I had time to do it. Now I have loads to do.

Instead of swarm bagging, I checked my own bees. Hive 1 looked a bit weak and 2 looked so strong I thought they might be plotting a swarm. I planned to see if hive 1's queen was failing (and discovered a brood pattern that indicated just that) and take a queen cell from hive 2 to put in hive 1 if colony 2 had made one (which they hadn't). However, colony 1 had made what looked like an "emergency" queen cell, showing they realise their queen has come to the end of her productive years, and they should soon have a replacement. So I'll leave them to it for a while - and hope... with fingers crossed.

Funny, when you said they seemed to be investigating her brickwork I thought mason bees but didn't want to show my ignorance it now seems even the 'experts' are not experts

Keep us posted if you hear any more from her.

with yours.

Websailor