Kingston Beekeepers

The end of the swarm season, possibly.

This year has been a particularly active year for swarms with calls from the public every few days. Fortunately they have come to an end in the past ten days, although I could be counting my chickens before they are hatched, (I won’t go on to make any of the obvious jokes).

Many of the calls turned out to be bumble bees and we encouraged people wherever possible to just leave them alone and let them get on with their lives. There were the few where people insisted something was done about the nest, mainly because they were too close to their children.

You also meet an interesting variety of people. This year I’ve meet a couple who are members of an organisation called the UK Antarctic Heritage Trust, who look after the huts and shelters of the early Antarctic explorers. And a Bushy Park Ranger who complained of bees in the cavity wall of his cottage that were getting into his house. When we asked how long they had been there we were shocked to hear that they had been in residence for about ten years, the family have had a thriving wild hive in their home for ten years! As they did not want to do anything that would harm the bees we had to say we could do nothing other than knock the wall down, the cottage is a listed building in a Royal Park!

There was also the swarm that settled on a grass verge despite the street being lined with mature trees. I didn’t see the deliveryman who had stopped his van by the kerb and stepped out onto a swarm of bees. I didn’t meet him but the neighbours were all talking this man who, accompanied by a small cloud of bees, must have broken the record for the 100-meter dash.

So now the phone doesn’t ring so often and the requests have all but dried up, I miss the sight of an upturned box with the bees crawling towards it as they join their queen in her temporary home. It’s an amazing sight and it illustrates the fact that a hive is a living organism that exists as one complete being.