Installing a bee hive in your back garden

This is my friend Matt taking delivery of his new bee hive. Two weeks later he had to deal with a bee swarm in a neighbouring garden. A swarm occurs when a new Queen bee takes some of a hive's worker and drone bees off to start a new life elsewhere.

To the untrained eye a swarm can look utterly terrifying as a dark cloud of bees whirl around noisily looking for a temporary resting place - in this case on the branch of a tree. At that point you have up to 48 hours to "rescue" the bees. If you don't, they'll find a new home for themselves. The trick is to shake the bees into a box and transfer them to a new hive overnight when they're asleep.

Collecting a swarm is a delicate business which usually requires an experienced beekeeper. So you've got to be impressed with Matt. He's only just done a two day beekeeping course but he's already tamed his first swarm and now has two bee hives!