Moving the bees

The Gander has dreamed of keeping bees for years.  Since moving to the Mount he has met a few apiarists through work and recently one of them very generously gave him a couple of hives, complete with 100 000 odd bees.  They've been living by the chooks, but rejected our water sources in favour of the neighbour's trough.  We bumped into him by the fence a couple of nights ago and it turns out he's allergic bees and terrified of the hives.  So with perhaps a little bit less planning than required, we moved them that night.

Gander and bees

It's best to move them after dark, when they're all home and sleepy with the cold.  So after dinner we put Miss Gosling to bed, wrapped Master Gosling up snugly in the pram and headed outside.  While I got kitted up in the protective gear, the Gander bravely smoked the bees and stuffed their doorways with newspaper in nothing more than his jeans and long sleeved t shirt.  Together we lifted them into the back of the car and drove them 100m to their new home.  That's when the trouble started.  The lid of one hive slipped open exposing a lot of very grumpy bees.  Agh!  A lot of swatting and swearing later, we finished the job with just two stings.

The bees are now happy in their new location.  Happy bees.  Happy neighbour.  Happy Geese waiting for their honey.  Harvesting it is the next job!

Bees new home by the water tanks