Year's End

Today was a quiet day. I spent a bit of it on the treadle machine, joining units for the current mystery quilt. Bonnie surprised me by adding another clue this morning, on top of yesterday's which I had only cut out but not sewn. Anyway, I am all up to date now. I wouldn't be surprised if there is another clue, possibly even the reveal, tomorrow.

Just as I finished sewing, one of our beehives swarmed. That was unexpected, as this hive has only been here since spring, after being captured in Geelong. They seemed happy last time they were looked at, and they had lots of space for growth and honey storage in their current hive.

Fortunately they settled quite low to the ground, in a small blackwood:

While a box was being prepared to catch them in, they moved to a young eucalypt a few metres away:

Still within reach, fortunately. If they had settled in one of our large trees we would have no hope of retrieving them.

New box:

Snip the branch the bees are hanging from, and drop them into the box:

Once they are all in, put the lid on, and wait to see if they will stay in.

In fact they don't seem to want to stay in that box.

Here's how they looked a couple of hours later:

Bees all over the outside of the box, rather than being inside setting up home. The second box on the right was to see if they might just prefer a different one. (The black and white thing in the top right is a magpie taking off).

It is now another 90 minutes or so later, and they are still on the outside of the box. But the sun is setting and it is too late to try anything more with them tonight. We'll see where they are in the morning.

Happy new year, everyone!