After the craziness of the house move, and the cataract surgery, sanity finally prevailed. I had to acknowledge that keeping the bees in The Secret Garden at Muswell Hill would simply mean too far to commute from Slough. So I decided to move them with me. Besides - selfishly - I miss them at the bottom of my garden.
So Guy and I applied the lessons, so very recently learned from Ron and Mary, and went to move them again. We carefully filled the entrance with a little piece of sponge, gently tied a cable around the entire double brood box, and slowly lifted the hive onto the trolley we'd brought with us.
We wobbled our way down the garden path, looked back for a last glimpse of a garden we'd hoped to grow and cherish, and then wound our way down to the little car. Mighty Mouse is a wee little car but is perfectly configured - once you've folded the back seats down - for fitting a standing hive in the back.
We drove away and off down the North Circular, on our way to Slough.
Now at this stage I must tell you - in five years of living and travelling in England - I have never once been pulled over by the police. So we were not expecting an eventful trip at all. Naturally, I had my bee suit on, but the veil off.
So when the blue siren went on behind us, I don't know who among us was more surprised - Guy, me - or 10,000 rather irritated lady bees.
Oh dear God! What had we done?
Guy pulled the car over, and I surreptitiously slipped on a jacket over my bee suit. I had of course, not bothered to put the statutory "Bees in Transit" notice in my car window, had I.
It turned out that the police thought my car was uninsured, and they fully intended to have the car towed away to a pound. I nearly fainted. I was rather glad at this stage that bees don't understand English. They might've rioted, or something equally scary ...
On top of that, I couldn't get out of the car because the passenger door doesn't work on the Mouse, which wouldn't have looked that good to the coppers.
Perhaps that wasn't such a bad thing, because it meant that I was forcibly confined inside the car - flathering away at Guy, who was meant to have organised the insurance. He spent 20 fraught minutes on the side of the highway, fast-talking the cops and the insurance company on the phone, while I and 10,000 close friends slowly simmered away inside the car.
Eventually it was all sorted out - it turned out that the insurance company had misspelled the registration number. The Old Bill turned away, visibly disappointed at not being able to tow my car, but gleefully listening to me ranting away at Guy about "getting it right the first time and why didn't you tell me and I could've done all this myself better and next time you'll know blah blah rant point finger threaten yell ...."
They left shaking their heads and smiling, and looking rather pityingly at my partner.
Yes, I'm proud of myself. I put on a Good Show for them, and they left none the wiser that they'd been one bee sting away from being assimilated by The Borg.
* * *
Once we arrived at the new house with the bees, we simply disappeared into the depths of the garage in Mighty Mouse and emerged out the other side into the privacy of the garden with the bees. We carefully trollied them all the way down the length of the long, long garden and round the corner behind the back of the shed.
We were in the process of carefully siting and uncabling them when I heard Guy shriek "they're all coming out the back end!" and he scorched off down the garden like a shot rattlesnake.
I popped my head around the edge of the hive and, sure enough, the cable had snagged on the Open Mesh Floor and pulled open a small hole large enough for several hundred extremely agitated bees to exit from.
"Holy Cow," I thought "imagine if that had happened in the car!?"
I must admit, I had a bloody good laugh!
They have settled now, after a few weeks, and seem to be thriving.
* * *
I've joined my local association, the impressively-named Slough, Windsor and Maidenhead Beekeepers' Society. So now I'm a member of two associations (I'd never give up my old one - I love 'em to bits).
To make friends with the new lot, I went on their Beginners' Beekeepers Course - not so much for the course content (although it was a great refresher, and I should be thinking about taking the Basic Beekeeper's Exam), but more to network among the local community of beekeepers. And it was great to do that; and to meet some more knowledgeable people.
It was also wonderfully inspiring, and got me down to the bottom of my garden this afternoon, in the sun.
Sadly, Bee Corner is rather tucked away in a dank and shady spot. I do hope it's not too cold and shady and secluded! They are buzzing, though, which gives me hope. And I spent the afternoon assembling all the new frames for my super-duper large 14 x 12 hive. It was hugely satisfying, banging and hammering and smacking away at things, particularly as I spent most of the time imagining it was Guy's head I was hammering.
Very useful anger management indeed.
Funny thing, beekeeping, isn't it?
Once we arrived at the new house with the bees, we simply disappeared into the depths of the garage in Mighty Mouse and emerged out the other side into the privacy of the garden with the bees. We carefully trollied them all the way down the length of the long, long garden and round the corner behind the back of the shed.
We were in the process of carefully siting and uncabling them when I heard Guy shriek "they're all coming out the back end!" and he scorched off down the garden like a shot rattlesnake.
I popped my head around the edge of the hive and, sure enough, the cable had snagged on the Open Mesh Floor and pulled open a small hole large enough for several hundred extremely agitated bees to exit from.
"Holy Cow," I thought "imagine if that had happened in the car!?"
I must admit, I had a bloody good laugh!
They have settled now, after a few weeks, and seem to be thriving.
* * *
I've joined my local association, the impressively-named Slough, Windsor and Maidenhead Beekeepers' Society. So now I'm a member of two associations (I'd never give up my old one - I love 'em to bits).
To make friends with the new lot, I went on their Beginners' Beekeepers Course - not so much for the course content (although it was a great refresher, and I should be thinking about taking the Basic Beekeeper's Exam), but more to network among the local community of beekeepers. And it was great to do that; and to meet some more knowledgeable people.
It was also wonderfully inspiring, and got me down to the bottom of my garden this afternoon, in the sun.
Sadly, Bee Corner is rather tucked away in a dank and shady spot. I do hope it's not too cold and shady and secluded! They are buzzing, though, which gives me hope. And I spent the afternoon assembling all the new frames for my super-duper large 14 x 12 hive. It was hugely satisfying, banging and hammering and smacking away at things, particularly as I spent most of the time imagining it was Guy's head I was hammering.
Very useful anger management indeed.
Funny thing, beekeeping, isn't it?
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