Later than last year, and much later than usual, on Monday 27th May our first swarm call of 2013. It was from a 'regular', a house in Spalding once owned by a beekeeper, now by his daughter. It has a colony in each of its chimneys and over the years has swarmed and occupied most of the neighbors chimneys and soffits. I pick up two or three swarms a season from their gardens, this one on a low branch of an azalea bush. I just put a hive on the ground, pushed it towards the swarm, and within ten minutes they had all run inside. I wish it was always that quick and simple. Usually I am at the top of a ladder, balancing on one foot, at full stretch reaching for the branch with a swarm on just beyond the tips of my fingers.
As the weather has turned for the worse again, I have not been able to have a good look at them yet, but they are coming and going, so at least they have decided to stay.
The first of my Queens are in production now and one of them should be ready to take over this colony as soon as she is mated and laying.