Gardening - the birds and the bees

All go in our garden again this weekend.  Yesterday we removed so of the ivy from the back and side of the house.  You know its time when it starts growing over the windows!

Then today we have been clearing some overhanging branches from the bottom of the garden whilst trying to avoid some visitors.

Our neighbours have 2 beehives.  One swarmed on Tuesday but by the time I had raised the alarm they were long gone. This morning there was lots of activity along the fence line and by the time I had got Leslie round they had taken up residence in our beech hedge.

this shot was taken with my short lens

Leslie wasn't able to remove the queen on his own so decided to wait til his daughter was home and then try again.

The following photos were taken with my long lens, though the bees seemed quite happy at this point.

We carried on clearing up

Then along came Abigail and collection commenced

It was fascinating to watch from a distance.

Peter and girls getting friendly, one is happier than the other to pick up.

So those remaining bees were pretty ticked off once their queen was taken away.  I was trying to water my greenhouse and got 2 bees in my hair, freaked out completely and ended up having to run away. Peter tried to finish and got stung twice, to add to an earlier sting, then chased up the garden.  We are waiting till later to go back down.

And this is his other injury, had a argument with a saw!!  Gardening really can be quite hazardous!