High tide and the bees

Just above high tide

I've had a colony of bees on Jim Caldwell's croft at Porthurik ( I have that spelling from a Gaelic speaker!) all summer, just above the tide-line, after yesterdays high tide they must be moved. The next neap tide in a couple of week could have a nor-westerly wind behind it and that would push the water even further up the machair than on Tuesday.

Moving them is a bit laborious, if you don't move them far enough they will fly back to the original hive site, you can get away with less than three feet but further that three miles is the minimum. So I'll have to strap the boxes together, put a ventilated screen on top and ship them home in the truck. This works well, when we moved from Ayr to Northumberland in the 70 s the bees, three colonies went with the furniture on a Pickford's removal van, none escaped and they all survived.. It wouldn't be possible today.... health and safety issues!