The theme of this 2nd Monday meeting was Swarms, and specifically how to collect them, although there were a few questions on how to stop them in the first place!
Mike Cherry, who is the Shipston Swarms Coordinator, brought along the equipment he uses to collect swarms and described the general approach to collecting a swarm – and how they very rarely match the ideal of hanging off a branch at head height. At this point members joined in with some of their tales of challenging swarm collections.
After the talk there was the usual Q&A session with some interesting tales of swarms and swarming. I had the experience of a swarm from my one colony, it filled the garden for a few minutes, and then the bees all went back into the hive. Best guess is that the bees wanted to go but the queen didn’t!
After the, ahem, refreshment break we had the 100 Club drawn where two lucky ticket holders won non-life changing amounts of money.
The 2nd Monday meeting is – amazingly – on the 2nd Monday of every month, so put them in your diary now!