Tomorrow night (Tuesday 18th August 2009), Alison and I are off out to a secret location near where we live to colect our very first honey bee swarm. Our Mentor, Peter, has been looking after then for us while we were on holiday, and tomorrow we get to take them home.

We’ve been on the Harrogate & Ripon Beekeepers Association course and are, unfortunately, the last people to get some bees. Some people have simply placed a hive outside and had bees come and live there by themselves, others have purchased bees for themselves (I’m Scottish and Alison is Yorkshire - so that was never going to be an option was it? ;-) ) while others have managed to obtain a swarm from their mentors - we just happened to be last!

We are very excited - as you can imagine - and looking forward to the imminent arrival. Hopefully, we can remember all that we were taught by HRBKA and we will make good ‘parents’ to our swarm.

With winter coming soon (well, it is August you know!) we will most likely need to keep them fed throughout the remainder of this year - it is quite late in the season for a swarm. Hopefully this winter will not be as miserable as the last two which caused havoc with the bee populations all over the country.

Wish us luck!

Cheers.