Bee's in the Belfry.

Well, not quite in the belfry because we don't have one but, but wait ... let's start at the beginning:

Turns out you should never ignore a big buzzing sound when you hear one.

On Saturday I heard a loud buzzing noise in the back garden but couldn't see where it was coming from, I didn't look very well but when it wasn't obvious I gave up and wrote it off to "something" but I didn't really know what. It was a busy weekend and I didn't think about it again.

On Monday morning while pushing children on the swing at school, I heard the buzzing again and noticed a big box on the wall of the house next door which was not there before. And it was covered in bee's.

I wasn't too sure what to make of it as it looked like a "professional" piece of equipment put there quite purposefully but the proximity didn't make sense - very close to a boundary (ours!) and about a metre away from their own bedroom windows, as well as the fact that they have a newborn baby so my initial fear of "oh my goodness there is an apiary 1 metre away from my swing!" didn't really seem to make sense! I was concerned about the school children as well as my own who have never been stung so their allergy status is unknown and also for Grant who is allergic to bee stings. It was all a bit worrying. And very confusing, I kept running different possibilities over and over in my head as to what it could be as well as trying to figure out how I was going to negotiate it's removal without causing trouble with the neighbours!

Fortunately, apart from a few strays they all seemed to stay pretty much in a group so we weren't being inundated with them but I wasn't sure if noise or food or small children running around the garden would cause them to disperse or attack!

Three attempts yesterday to find our neighbours home were fruitless so I started today still not knowing what the bee's were about but my confusion didn't last too long as my neighbour came over to explain what had happened.

Apparently, on Saturday (the day of the buzzing!) a swarm of bee's decided to make their hive in an air brick in the wall of their garage (which faces my swing!), they had discovered this and called in a beekeeper to help. He had covered up the entrance to the hive with a box which would "encourage" them to move!

I was SO relieved!

At 10 a.m. this morning there was a swarm the size of a small football hanging underneath the box (creepy) and by 11 a.m. they were gone! Apart from a few lingerers.

Bee's are really interesting and fascinating but I would prefer them to be interesting and fascinating somewhere else.

These pictures were taken with my cellphone so it's difficult to see but the brown and silver thing is "the box" and the black clump on the top right of it is "the bee's"! This clump being about half the size of today's clump!! We do like honey but we're glad they've gone to make it somewhere else!