AN AMATEUR Oxford apiarist managed to wrangle a rogue swarm of bees in his garden yesterday with a little help from the Oxford Mail.

Hugo Crombie, a director at Hogacre Common eco park and part-time beekeeper, was giving reporter Pete Hughes a tour of the park’s hives when the newshound spotted a story in a nearby tree.

One of Hogacre’s four colonies had split in two and a new young queen had swarmed, with several hundred female workers, into the pear tree just feet away.

Without missing a beet, Mr Crombie leapt into his beekeeper’s suit to capture the swarm and install them in the park’s only spare hive.

But he did not use a honey trap to entice the bees. Instead, the 58-year-old grabbed a plastic box and a pillow case.

Holding the box underneath, he shook the branch until most of the bees were inside, including the queen.

He then placed the box on the pillow case, which had been put on the ground, and waited for the remaining bees to clamber inside.

The eco park mostly keeps bees to help pollinate their allotment plants, but the extra bees will help them pay the rent: the land is owned by Corpus Christi College, Oxford, and in return for its use the eco park pays the college master a single jar of honey every year.

After the buzz of the bee rescue had died down, Mr Hughes returned to the real reason for his visit – the official launch of this year’s Low Carbon Oxford week.

Read that story in tomorrow’s Oxford Mail.