An April Swarm

I generally try to keep my blog posts in order, often lagging a few days behind what is happening on the smallholding.
But today's main event warrants jumping the queue.

We had our first bee swarm of the year!

There is an old saying:

A swarm in May is worth a load of hay
A swarm in June is worth a silver spoon
A swarm in July is worth not a fly

It doesn't mention a swarm in April.
I am not definite of the comparative worth of the items in this saying, but the general idea is that the earlier the swarm, the more chance it has of building into a strong colony and producing honey before the autumn. So I guess a swarm in April is a good thing, though it did come from one of the hives which we filled with one of last year's 23 swarms! So maybe some of our bees are a bit 'swarmy'.

I was busy harvesting coppice willows when Sue came running past. "I've found a swarm", she panted as she ran past toward the bee equipment shed.

Fortunately Sue has had me putting new wax in frames the last couple of days. I wasn't quite expecting the brood frames to be put to use quite so quickly. Sue had only been inspecting her bees this morning. Of the two hives which survived the winter in the orchard (out of four, all from last year's collected swarms), both had queen cells at Sue's last inspection and both lacked eggs or brood (larvae) this morning, so something was obviously going on.

The swarm captured and being emptied out in front of the hive

Last year got us into a good routine for catching bee swarms. Sue collected all the parts to assemble a new hive, plus a sturdy box in which to catch the swarm. She bought up a white sheet too.
This would be placed on the ramp up to the hive entrance for the bees to march up.

I grabbed a handful of lemon balm, for its scent acts as a bait and helps persuade the swarm to move into the hive permanently.
I didn't don a bee suit, for swarms are relatively gentle, although being shook off a tree when you are clustered around your queen and then emptied out in a heap in front of a hive are probably not most conducive to keeping calm. But swarming bees have filled up on honey and unlikely to sting.
I remain wary though and retreat if any bees show too much interest.

I love to watch the bees marching up into their new home, but these didn't play ball. 

They thought about it a couple of times, but in the end Sue decided

to go for the more direct method of shaking them into the open hive.

Hopefully they will decide they like it and won't be gone in the morning.

The hives in their orchard setting.