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26th May, 2008 - BEE Warned, You Might Get Stung! With rain now forecast off and on for most of the week, Dan took advantage of what was a gratefully received warm and dry spell and set off for the pond with a spage.
Knowing the only way forward to secure the pound is the use of bird netting sunk into a trench, Dan started digging the 90 metre lond hole required.
The locals thought that the trench was either a moat for all the water or, if it went any deeper, somewhere for them to hide in case the Germans invade again!!!
With 2 thirds of the trench dug and the weather looking hopeful for the reaminder of the day, Dan was all set to finish the back breaking dig...
...that was until the Bee shop phoned and said it was time for Dan to collect his bees!
Like a kid at Christmas or a dog with 2 dicks, Dan was beaming from ear to ear and couldn't wait to drive the 5 miles to collect his bees.
Once at the bee shop, Dan and the shopkeeper set about moving the bees from the shop's hive to his own - a relatively simple process involving little more than transferring the frames inside the hive (covered in bees) from one to the other.
Once all the frames had been moved over, it was simply a matter of waiting until the evening for all the foraging bees to come home from the fields and settle down for the night (being clever little creatures, the foraging bees could smell their queen in Dan's hive and therefore knew where home was)
So, still beaming from ear to ear Dan returned home and waited for dusk.
After an absolute eternity (ok, it was a few hours, but you know what kids are like when they're excited!) Dan and Tracey returned to the bee shop to pick up the hive.
At this point in the preceedings, Dan knew full well that he should have approached the hive with his smoker, but against Tracey's (better) judgement and everything he's read in the books and learnt at Bee School, Dan didn't - and as a result, he got stung!
After learning his lesson, Dan then got the smoker out of the car, lit it and then approached the hive in order to shut the door so the bees would not come out of the hive during their drive home.
Unfortunately, not all of the bees were inside the hive when Dan shut the door and consequently, when he put the hive in the boot of the car, around 20 or so bees were still trying to get in.
Undetered, Dan started the drive home, this time being very careful to avoid pot holes in case anything became loose and all the bees could escape.
Meanwhile, Tracey was looking anxiously in the back of the car making sure that the 20 or so bees that were trying to get back into the hive didn't come anywhere near her - 5 miles has never been such a long journey!
Eventually, and completely un-stung, the bees had finished their road trip and all that remained was for Dan to lift the hive of rather uptight bees (they don't like car journeys) to their final position then open the hive door - finally learning from his previous mistake, Dan lit his smoker first, before doing anything else.
Once the hive door was it took a couple of minutes for the first few bees to venture outside. Meanwhile, the bees that were on the loose inside the car realised the benefits of doors and flew out of the car and amazingly headed straight for their hive.
 
So, with only 1 sting (it's now 2-0 to the bees), the transfer was deemed a success and all we need now is for the bees to polinate the fruit and veg and make honey!
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