London swarm of honey bees saved

Here are a few photos of my removing a colony of honey bees from a garden in London. They swarmed into a pine tree and the home owners were both amazed and alarmed! The garden was a typical small London terrace house garden and not suitable for 50,000 + bees! So with a little smoke and balancing on a ladder I was able to coax the bees into a box.

The bees were really claim and good natured. I always coat the inside of the box with melted beeswax and honey. This make a tempting retreat for the bees from the openness of a tree branch, and soon they were happily taking up residence in the sweet box.

I have a policy of taking unknown swarms to an isolation site where I can monitor them to make sure they are disease free before introducing them to one of my apiary sites.

These bees are doing well and growing in size. I believe they will be strong enough to make it through the winter and will be in a position to gather honey for us in the spring.

photo copyright 2008 ©-The Hive Honey Shop