Swarm caught and off to a new home

Just wanted to share a story - after inspecting my hive it suddenly swarmed two days later and then after letting it settle I decided I would check on it when I had time the next weekend but before i could it swarmed again! The first swarm was very large and i found someone who collects swarms through Gumtree. They came and took the swarm and hopefully it is doing well. When it swarmed the second time it was half the size and I contacted the other person I had contacted the previous time but who didn’t respond before the other. He came and inspected where it was and given its location would be back the next day but late that morning it took off - the next day it came back and set itself up in a convenient low position in a rose bush. This beekeeper is so passionate - he took him time to try to get every bee into the box and op off the ground where they could be harmed.

He put me onto a show called Lawyers Guns and Honey in the series Rotten on Netflix - it should appear as a horror story. In America they are losing about 50% of colonies a year.

I was left feeling guilty that I only have one hive.

People like the second beekeeper and the rest of us who are in this for the good of bees and mankind need to realise how important what we do is. If bees disappear so do we.

Every bee is precious.

The second guy I sued has made contact with a number of pest control people to say that if they get a call for a swarm call him.

I would urge anyone who has the ability to help save the bees to do the same - this is not just a service to the bees but all mankind.

More power to people like Shayne who manages to this around his job and he travels all over Melbourne doing this.

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Welcome to the forum Doug and for your story.
You should join a local bee group and learn how to go about making a split so that the bees don’t swarm and are lost. If you only want to have one hive a split is a very saleable item on Gumtree. A mate in Sydney sold one in 15 minutes of posting it.
A second hive is well worth having for many reasons and only takes a little bit of extra time when you are going to do an inspextion as you are already suited up and the smoker is going well.
Cheers

Thanks Peter - I said to the guy who got the second swarm that after watching the show Lawyers Guns and Honey I feel guilty and feel I should have a second hive. The dogs weren’t troubled by the nuc box sitting in the garden bed and in the right place it would be no issue although one of the kids is neurotic and wife is antsy, I have to say that the lemon and orange trees are chockers with fruit and there can only be one group to thanks - my bees!.

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