Swarm!

You never know how a day will turn out.Today started as usual with the same old, same old routine.....pretty much like the last few days.....when nothing much happens apart from medication, breakfast, 'News', medication, 'Ellen', lunch, 'The Virginian', 'News', medication, dinner, medication and bed.Today being Saturday the routine was slightly different as the TV schedule is different. Will eventually got round to doing some 'Man Cave' clearance and we discovered that the long deceased mouse/mice had created a lovely fluffy green nest from the pile on the green rug we had brought back form Frogknot months ago.....yes, that gives you some indication of how long this stuff has been sat there waiting to be sorted!Climbing the back stairs in the early afternoon, Will suddenly said 'Look at that!'At first I didn't know what I was looking at because everything looked the same in the back garden but then I noticed the swirling mass of insects flying around at the bottom of the garden.It was a swarm of bees!We went in quite quickly as Will has developed an allergy to bee stings and another sting could kill him. Luckily he has an out of date epi-pen just in case.We watched the swarm from the kitchen and noticed it soon settle into the Buckinghamia tree at the bottom of the garden. There were still quite a few bees flying around but a quick 'google' assured me that they would not be aggressive. The swarm is made up of workers who follow a Queen who has left another hive and gather around her when she settles. Once settled, apparently, 'scout bees' head off in search of a suitable place to create a new nest. This can take from a few hours to a few days to locate and once they have found it the 'scout bees' head back to the swarm and do a dance which tells the other bees exactly where the new nest location can be found and they all head there.I was a bit concerned that the Man-Cave might prove popular with its smart TV and stash of crisps!Will phoned a 'Jack' who was apparently coming to the Kindy where he works in a few weeks to give a talk on bee keeping. Jack said he would get in touch with someone else to come and collect the swarm from us.That someone else was Jonathan.I swear when Jonathan stepped out of his truck I heard Angels singing! He was not what I was expecting at all. I don't know what I was expecting. It was probably a middle aged man, with a beard, possibly made up of bees and wearing suitable protective clothing.Jonathan looked like he had come from Summer Bay, young, blonde and drop dead gorgeous......in shorts and t-shirt! I tried not to hold onto his hand too long when he shook mine.There was little Will could do except standback because of the deadly bees but I was able to observe Jonathan close up at work."Are you not going to put on any protective clothing?" I asked, wide eyed."No," he said, "I'll be alright."He sprayed the swarm with something first of all....I think it was water..... I hope it was water.....I was so close some of it sprayed on me!"This will keep them busy," said Jonathan, "They will be busy trying to clean it off."Then he picked up a large plastic bin and cut a few small branches off the tree and put them in the bin."You might want to stand back a bit now," he said, "it will send them a bit crazy."He then carefully lifted the bin up over the swarm on the branch and then shook the branch roughly about three times and most of the swarm dropped into the bin. He put the bin down and covered it with a sack."That's one sting," he said, pulling an angry bee off his bare leg, "Oh, and another."I was now standing back with Will. Jonathan taped the sack onto the bin."I'm 99 per cent sure we got the Queen," he said, " look at the way the bees are hovering around the top of the bin, they can smell the scent of the Queen." I understood how the bees felt.....like Will and I hovering around Jonathan.It was over all too soon. He fastened the bin onto the back of his van and then was off with his new collection of bees for their new hive in Summer Bay.You never know how a day will turn out.....but I like the ones with a Jonathan in them!