So I was a happy bee-keeper for about 3 weeks! It seemed such a good idea; you allow a beekeeper to keep his hive in your garden in exchange for some honey.
But…yesterday the colony took wing and scarpered…
And set up shop in a nearby bush!
When they swarmed, my entire garden was filled with a loud humming noise, and I stood in the middle of a cloud of bees! I was almost weeping; with the beauty and excitement of it, but also with the sadness of loss. I knew they were off.
Later on when I looked into the hive, I quite understood their decision to move out
Instead of being attached to the top of the box, the combs were scattered on the floor. I am not sure how this came about, but what a mess!
You can see one sad little bee, trying to look after the brood cells…
So I say Goodbye to my bee dream for now. I hope they find a new home in time to produce enough honey to survive the winter.
This is when they first arrived to my garden https://annakeiller.wordpress.com/2012/06/14/keeping-bees/
Annakeiller's Blog 
what an amazing experience! It’s wonderful when they accept you as part of the hive. Bees once built a hive within the walls of a flat I was living in (old, single on its own unit) & they’d hum me to sleep of a night, always part to allow me up the stairs. They were killed by an early blast of summer heat – they’d built the hive on the western facing wall and there was no shade. It was terrible – mountains and drifts of dead bees. It was the only time I got stung, after the queen had died and all the workers were flying, panic stricken & dying.
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Wow! Sung to sleep by bees…, stuff of a fairy tale. Unfortunately, ‘my’ bees have now left – I really am devastated but equally determined to learn more. Next time I have bees, I’ll run the show on my own. Something went wrong when they were transferred into the hive by the guy who owns them and I know to little to do anything about it. x
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What a lovely-sad post. I can completely understand why you’re so devastated that they’re gone. There’s something uniquely special about living with or near other species. I hope you’ll try again, and write about it here when you do. PP
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