You cannot BEE serious.
Anyone walking down The Avenue, Wanstead, on Thursday morning would have come across a swarm of around 30,000 honey bees being transported out of a tree.
Their guides away from the tree branch to a new home were beekeepers David Hulbert, taking time out from his job as a rabbi at a Newbury Park synagogue, and Jocelyn Shepherd, of Woodford Green.
A queen bee will leave a colony with a large group of worker bees in a swarm, before forming a new colony in a different location.
Though alarming to the amateur eye, the bees were “really docile” according to Rabbi Hulbert of the Bet Tikvah Synagogue in Perrymans Road, who is also a member of Epping Forest Beekeepers (EFB).
He said: “You have a 24 hour window [before] they fly away.
“It’s valuable.
“There’s quite a lot of bee keepers desperate for their first colony.” The pair cut the branch before gently moving the swarm into a box.
The bees will now live in a hive at Jocelyn’s home.
The EFB, a division of the Essex Beekeepers Association, hold regular meetings and can be called on to remove swarms.
Visit www.eppingforestbeekeepers.co.uk for information.
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