Bees swarming

The hot weather continues, day after day, and the swarms are happening regularly. After a long wet spring, it's as if the bees are relishing the chance to proliferate. This week a beekeeper ten miles away offered me a swarm she had collected. I drove through deep lanes to collect the swarm, lanes thick with the scent of meadow sweet and speckled with pink campion. The bees were neatly boxed up ready, and made no objection to a a car journey back to my glebe field. I used the time honoured way of putting a white sheet on boards before the new hive, and letting the bees walk themselves in. And they did. Every time it happens is a wonder to behold. After forty minutes, the whole swarm had disappeared into the hive. Now I'm just hoping they will stay put and make my hive their honeyed home.