Perhaps the NWPBA group and a few others should check this one out.

Bee CCD not a problem for our robust little Olalla Bumble Bees.

- Brad Guth Brad_Guth Brad.Guth BradGuth

Hail,
Don't know if this is the right place to ask any of this stuff, and
thanks in advance for any responses I get.

I am writing a novel, set in Anglo-Saxon Britain, and a swarm of bees
turn up.

How safe is a swarm of bees? Could someone who had minimal experience
but a whole lot of luck handle them safely?

My memeory (very rusty) of this is that the sound is quite loud. Is
it the same pitch as bees normally make, or is it noticably lower? Is
there a definite smell - something that a lay person would describe as
a smell of honey?

How difficult is it to get a swarm of bees that has just settled on a
branch of a tree to move from one place to another?

And I have seen footage of people with bee beards - has anyone here
got any experience of these, or know where I could find out? What
does this kind of thing feel like?

Thanks very much in advance.

I had two colonies, one died out last winter and I put the spare brood box
on the full brood box to allow the good colony to grow, with a queen
excluder and a couple of supers on top.

Had a look today and alas, the top super is full of brood. I didn't look any
further. either the queen has got through the excluder, or the supers are
full of brood and the brood boxes are used for stores.

I'm assuming in a week or so I can separate the two hives, a brood box and a
super on each and the one without the queen will make a new one. Is this a
reasonable assumption?

Thanks