Hi All Yesterday was a beautiful day in the eastern cape. The eucalyptus trees are flowering and supers filling noticeably despite the shortening days and pesty predacious birds. Swarms are numerous from wild hives, and some of these had settled in the roof of an Anglican retreat in the mountains near my town. A number of San Franciscan monks are about to move in there so the sisters resident there now called me in to get rid of the bees as apparently the brothers heard about the bees and fear for killer bees. Nevertheless, in shorts and t shirt I sat on the rooftop of the chapel removing tiles and large honey combs under the rather slack jawed stare of the local gardener (who had previously tried to remove the bees and ended up in hospital). Once removed I smoked the bees out and they settled in the tallest tree nearby. The top section of the tree was quite thin, so after talking for a while with the relevant sister (in charge of the garden) I recieved permission to shoot the top branch of the tree of. Half a box of ammo later (.22) the swarm came down neatly and landed in a lump on the lawn and rapidly resettled. I trimmed the branch, put the whole lot in a microwave oven's box (sent in advance by kind people from SF) and drove away in my car - leaving a gardener who could not understand what his ancestors were up to. (Xhosa people believe the bees are the ancestors - I am therefore on better terms with the gardeners ancestors than he is as I recieved no stings even although I probably put a few bullets through some of them!!) Oh yes - in the distance I could see the light blue ocean with a few ships on it and a nice yellow beach. One of those days that stands out as being 'special'. I am sure it will rain this weekend. Keep well Garth Garth Cambray Camdini Apiaries Grahamstown Apis mellifera capensis Eastern Cape Prov. South Africa Time = Honey