Hi all Yesterday I had one of those very funny things happen. I smoked a small hive out of a wall. What I did was to make a small hole in the wall high up above the cluster and then pump smoke in. The bees quite happily bubbled out as they normally do. Now what usually happens when I do this is that the bees will choose the most impossible place you can imagine to settle. Then I go an collect the cluster put it in a photocopier paper box and leave it for two hours and collect them later. Well, yesterday things went wronng, I put a few puffs of smoke into the hole and out flies the queen, straight into my shirt (I don't wear protective gear for that sort of thing) and runs down my front, into my sleave. Now I did not want to squash her. Eventually everyone else in the hive came out too in a big mass and landed on my shirtsleave on the outside. So here I am with a cluster of bees around the top of my shirt just above the armpit. This poses a problem as one arm is unmoveable. (luckily the left) Next I try to walk over to my car to collect a box to shake them into. This is difficult and to reach in is worse. The owners of the house were watching incredulously from their lounge window. Next I got the box and stood over it, then did a rapid head banging stunt and the bees fell in the box. Then I carefully removed my shirt and turned it inside out and found the queen, popped her in a matcbox and put it in the other box, put a lid on, put the shirt back on, at which point I got stung for the first time on my head by a bee that got squished by the shirt I geuss. The owners asked if that was how one removed bees and I said it was one of the worst ways but it worked. Anybody else had queens fly out and run in funny places? Keep well Garth PS I sort of remember hearing that euro queens don't fly when iin egg laying condition. African queens can fly short distances, so thats how the smoking out works. --- Garth Cambray "Opinions expressed in this post may be those 15 Park Road of Pritz, my cat, who knows a lot about Grahamstown catfood." 6140 *[log in to unmask]* South Africa Phone 27-0461-311663 In general, generalisations are bad. But don't worry BEEEEEE happy.