{"id":1612,"date":"2014-05-20T21:03:59","date_gmt":"2014-05-20T21:03:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/donatedhouse.org.uk\/?p=1612"},"modified":"2014-05-20T21:03:59","modified_gmt":"2014-05-20T21:03:59","slug":"swarming-season","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/donatedhouse.org.uk\/?p=1612","title":{"rendered":"Swarming Season"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Here we are, enjoying a delicious outdoor-reared waffle breakfast, all unaware that the next hour would bring&#8230;<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/donatedhouse.org.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/05\/PICT0045-e1400618023715.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"alignnone  wp-image-1600\" alt=\"KONICA MINOLTA DIGITAL CAMERA\" src=\"http:\/\/donatedhouse.org.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/05\/PICT0045-e1400618023715.jpg\" width=\"480\" height=\"640\" srcset=\"https:\/\/donatedhouse.org.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/05\/PICT0045-e1400618023715.jpg 1704w, https:\/\/donatedhouse.org.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/05\/PICT0045-e1400618023715-224x300.jpg 224w, https:\/\/donatedhouse.org.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/05\/PICT0045-e1400618023715-768x1024.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 480px) 100vw, 480px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Garden progress. And&#8230;<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/donatedhouse.org.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/05\/PICT0048.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" alt=\"KONICA MINOLTA DIGITAL CAMERA\" src=\"http:\/\/donatedhouse.org.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/05\/PICT0048.jpg\" width=\"640\" height=\"480\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>A giant swarm of bees. From our own beehive. We forgot to read the book, which said in chapter 1: put a super on in April to give the bees enough room. Otherwise they&#8217;ll swarm.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/donatedhouse.org.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/05\/PICT0050.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" alt=\"KONICA MINOLTA DIGITAL CAMERA\" src=\"http:\/\/donatedhouse.org.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/05\/PICT0050.jpg\" width=\"640\" height=\"480\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Ooops.<\/p>\n<p>They gathered quite quickly on one of the blueberry bushes, and we quickly set up a hive to try to catch them.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" alt=\"moving stuff from around the swarm\" src=\"http:\/\/donatedhouse.org.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/05\/PICT0056-1024x768.jpg\" width=\"640\" height=\"480\" \/><\/p>\n<p>They were quite easily shaken off the bush into a bucket.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" alt=\"shaking the bees into a bucket\" src=\"http:\/\/donatedhouse.org.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/05\/PICT0062-1024x768.jpg\" width=\"640\" height=\"480\" \/><\/p>\n<p>And the bucket dumped into the waiting hive.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"alignnone size-large wp-image-1606\" alt=\"dumping the bees in the hive\" src=\"http:\/\/donatedhouse.org.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/05\/PICT0066-1024x768.jpg\" width=\"640\" height=\"480\" srcset=\"https:\/\/donatedhouse.org.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/05\/PICT0066-1024x768.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/donatedhouse.org.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/05\/PICT0066-300x224.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Two lots of bucket dumping didn&#8217;t seem to have got them all, so we took the blueberry bush itself up to the hive.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" alt=\"moving the rest of the bees\" src=\"http:\/\/donatedhouse.org.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/05\/PICT0073-1024x768.jpg\" width=\"640\" height=\"480\" \/><\/p>\n<p>But they very quickly reassembled on the next blueberry bush to where they had originally congregated. Obviously they had decided on that spot. We stuck an empty brood box next to them, hoping that they would decide to go in it.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" alt=\"bees swarming on the blueberry\" src=\"http:\/\/donatedhouse.org.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/05\/PICT0082-1024x768.jpg\" width=\"640\" height=\"480\" \/><\/p>\n<p>But they hung around until evening before flying off in a giant cloud, never to be seen again. Oh well, we still have the remainder of the original hive.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/donatedhouse.org.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/05\/PICT0046.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" alt=\"KONICA MINOLTA DIGITAL CAMERA\" src=\"http:\/\/donatedhouse.org.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/05\/PICT0046.jpg\" width=\"640\" height=\"480\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Meanwhile, at the back corner of the plot, Catie and I removed the raised bed at the base of the wall ready to erect a workspace\/shed with the windfall reclaimed wood Antony has given us.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" alt=\"discussing the shed\" src=\"http:\/\/donatedhouse.org.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/05\/PICT0084-1024x768.jpg\" width=\"640\" height=\"480\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Progress was quick with Catie, Anna, Daisy and me all working on it on the weekend.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" alt=\"working on the shed\" src=\"http:\/\/donatedhouse.org.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/05\/PICT0088-1024x768.jpg\" width=\"640\" height=\"480\" \/><\/p>\n<p>And today I finished the roof frame with Anna and Lea&#8217;s help.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" alt=\"The Shed\" src=\"http:\/\/donatedhouse.org.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/05\/PICT0089-1024x768.jpg\" width=\"640\" height=\"480\" \/><\/p>\n<p>It&#8217;s ready for the roof going on tomorrow, all being well.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Here we are, enjoying a delicious outdoor-reared waffle breakfast, all unaware that the next hour would bring&#8230; Garden progress. And&#8230; A giant swarm of bees. From our own beehive. We forgot to read the book, which said in chapter 1: &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/donatedhouse.org.uk\/?p=1612\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/donatedhouse.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1612"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/donatedhouse.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/donatedhouse.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/donatedhouse.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/donatedhouse.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1612"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/donatedhouse.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1612\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1613,"href":"https:\/\/donatedhouse.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1612\/revisions\/1613"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/donatedhouse.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1612"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/donatedhouse.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1612"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/donatedhouse.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1612"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}