Bee update

More on yesterday's swarm. When I arrived at work this morning, the bees were still in their beardy formation under the window of our office. Then, Chris the honey-maker turned up with a beekeeping suit and a hive, and somehow tempted the scouts (and hence the others) into his hive, with a view to taking them away.

However, the bees had other ideas. Before the hive could be removed, the scout bees found another location (in the opposite corner of the quad) which they considered an even more desirable residence than Chris's hive. As you can see from the picture, the new location offered a hole in the wall and an adjacent shiny pipe; with the greatest of respect to Chris, the hive offered neither.

So, after twenty minutes or so of swarming around, they settled into this new beardy formation (there must be a proper technical term for this). Colleagues in adjacent offices evacuated to safer quarters. And for a while, the bees were satisfied. But a scout bee is never satisfied, it seems, and by mid-afternoon they were off again - this time, destination the-gap-in-the-mortar-above-a-third-floor-window. By 4pm they'd almost all disappeared into the aforementioned mortar gap, nestled between the third floor ceiling and the flat roof.

For those who have asked, I can report that so far we have not found any honey.