BANGING a saucepan with a spoon may not be the sound Redditch’s Emily Tyrrell normally likes to make, but it did the trick when dealing with an enormous cloud of bees.
Music teacher Emily can usually be found wielding the baton as music director of Redditch Choral Society.
However she’s also the woman behind The Bird & The Bees, a beekeeper skilled at dealing with swarms of bees, safely gathering them and finding them a new home.
“I’ve always been fascinated by bees and as during lockdown my music work was drying up I thought I would give it a go,” she said.
“I bought a hive and started it off, caught a swarm and now keep both at home and in Feckenham.”
From there she started her Facebook page, The Bird & The Bees, and now regularly gets calls from people who find swarms of bees.
“If you find a swarm, stay calm. Keep children and pets away,” said Emily.
“They are swarming it’s because they are looking for a new home and don’t want to get into conflict,” said Emily.
“It’s then that I usually get a message about them.”
And the saucepan and spoon?
“I had a call from a Redditch resident who said there was a swarm on the ground in their close,” she said.
“On arrival the bees had started moving to a nearby tree so the air was filled with an enormous cloud of bees – an amazing sight!
“Not wanting them to settle in the tree, I borrowed a saucepan and spoon.
“Repeatedly banging the saucepan loudly made the bees think there was a storm coming and so they quickly changed direction and went back to their previous patch on the ground – then it was an easy catch!
“They were then safely rehomed.”
