Yesterday when I had a short break at 16:00, I looked out to the backyard and discovered a swarm of bees hovering around the bushes! It was dazzling to see a whole lot of brown little bombers flying randomly and making a noise that was more like a humming engine than the normal buzz.
昨天下午四點休息時，望出後花園，但見一群蜜蜂在樹叢中漫天飛舞，咖啡色一點點的，轟轟作響，彷如一堆小型轟作機籠罩着置花園的草坪和花草，看得人眼花瞭亂。
After some time, the bees settled on a bush, forming a swollen mass of moving bodies on one of the branches.
過了不久，那群蜜蜂逐漸聚在一棵樹上，遠看好像是樹枝結了一塊厚厚的疤。
An hour or so has passed when everything seemed to have quietened down, but out of the blue the bees started moving again and resettled on a chunky branch of another bush. It was to be their resting place for a while yet.
就這樣靜止了個多小時，那群蜂突然全體搬遷，飛到另一株樹再次聚集，依付在一條較粗的樹枝，形成新據點。
As one of our neighbours keeps bees, we naturally thought that the bees were his and hoped that he would help us deal with the problem. I looked for him before dinner without success, and tried again after dinner. He told me he would deal with those bees with a vacuum cleaner after I told him the full story. That had us puzzled as to why he would want to kill off his bees instead of recapturing them.
由於鄰居有養蜂，我們便以為那些蜜蜂是他的，希望他來處理。我去找他，晚飯前找不着，飯後找到了，把情況告訴他後，他竟然說會用吸塵機對付，把我們弄糊塗了，為甚麼他要把他的蜜蜂滅絕呢？
After finishing his meal, my neighbour came in full gear with his vacuum cleaner and protective clothes. We could sense that something serious was going to happen. He sucked away some bees from the big fat mass on the bush and sprayed at them, sending the bees fleeing into the surroundings. After a brief retreat, my neighbour repeated his attack a couple of times until he was confident that the queen bee was killed. He reassured us that the rest of the swarm would disperse elsewhere once they’ve lost their leader, and it was indeed what’s happened today.
待他吃過飯後，他真的全副武裝，拿來吸塵機，還有保護裝束，他果然動真格，用吸塵機吸走了一些蜜蜂，然後拿殺蟲劑噴向蜂群，那些蜜蜂驟然四散飛，鄰居稍作迴避後，再如法炮製兩三次，他蠻有信心已殺死了蜂后，群蜂無首就自然不會再聚集，到了今天果然煙消雲散了。
So why did he decide to kill those bees? When the main business of his visit was over, he said that his bees would never fly out so late but usually earlier, between 14:00 and 14:30 when he inspects the hives for honey. Sometimes his bees do end up settling somewhere in our backyard, and we would then tell him to recapture the queen so that the rest of the swarm would fly back to their hives. He also said that spring was a time where swarms of bees might sometimes travel a fair distance (up to 6 to 6.5 km) to find a new home, but it was certainly not advisable to let them set foot. We definitely ought to thank him for taking the trouble to clean up a mess that he wasn’t responsible for!
但他為何會殺蜂呢？後來他告訴我們，他是下午兩點到兩點半檢查蜂箱時，他的蜂才會飛出來（有時他的蜜蜂也會逃到我們的後花園，然後得勞煩他接「皇后」回朝，其他的才會乖乖跟隨），這次肯定不是他的蜜蜂，他又說，春天時會不時有一群群蜜蜂會遠飛他處，最多可飛6至6.5公里，可能是迷途，可能是想築新窩，不曉得是甚麼風把這些蜂吹過來，但千萬不可讓牠們落戶，他這次義務為我們清除此害，真的要好好感激！
Flying bees in my neighbour’s backyard has become quite a common occurrence of late, and it can be as frequent as twice or thrice a week. My neighbour is probably getting quite keen to squeeze every drop out of the hives (so to say) when he inspects them. He told us that the harvest didn’t look particularly promising so far, but there’s still time to catch up while many flowers are still in full bloom. His bees don’t need to look far; they just have to come and work hard in our backyard more often!
最近他檢查蜂箱挺頻密，一週兩、三次，想必他是急於收成了。他說今年收成不太好，趁現在玫瑰仍到處盛開，他的蜜蜂得加把勁，多多在我們的後花園流連，努力工作了！
昨天下午四點休息時，望出後花園，但見一群蜜蜂在樹叢中漫天飛舞，咖啡色一點點的，轟轟作響，彷如一堆小型轟作機籠罩着置花園的草坪和花草，看得人眼花瞭亂。
After some time, the bees settled on a bush, forming a swollen mass of moving bodies on one of the branches.
過了不久，那群蜜蜂逐漸聚在一棵樹上，遠看好像是樹枝結了一塊厚厚的疤。
An hour or so has passed when everything seemed to have quietened down, but out of the blue the bees started moving again and resettled on a chunky branch of another bush. It was to be their resting place for a while yet.
就這樣靜止了個多小時，那群蜂突然全體搬遷，飛到另一株樹再次聚集，依付在一條較粗的樹枝，形成新據點。
As one of our neighbours keeps bees, we naturally thought that the bees were his and hoped that he would help us deal with the problem. I looked for him before dinner without success, and tried again after dinner. He told me he would deal with those bees with a vacuum cleaner after I told him the full story. That had us puzzled as to why he would want to kill off his bees instead of recapturing them.
由於鄰居有養蜂，我們便以為那些蜜蜂是他的，希望他來處理。我去找他，晚飯前找不着，飯後找到了，把情況告訴他後，他竟然說會用吸塵機對付，把我們弄糊塗了，為甚麼他要把他的蜜蜂滅絕呢？
After finishing his meal, my neighbour came in full gear with his vacuum cleaner and protective clothes. We could sense that something serious was going to happen. He sucked away some bees from the big fat mass on the bush and sprayed at them, sending the bees fleeing into the surroundings. After a brief retreat, my neighbour repeated his attack a couple of times until he was confident that the queen bee was killed. He reassured us that the rest of the swarm would disperse elsewhere once they’ve lost their leader, and it was indeed what’s happened today.
待他吃過飯後，他真的全副武裝，拿來吸塵機，還有保護裝束，他果然動真格，用吸塵機吸走了一些蜜蜂，然後拿殺蟲劑噴向蜂群，那些蜜蜂驟然四散飛，鄰居稍作迴避後，再如法炮製兩三次，他蠻有信心已殺死了蜂后，群蜂無首就自然不會再聚集，到了今天果然煙消雲散了。
So why did he decide to kill those bees? When the main business of his visit was over, he said that his bees would never fly out so late but usually earlier, between 14:00 and 14:30 when he inspects the hives for honey. Sometimes his bees do end up settling somewhere in our backyard, and we would then tell him to recapture the queen so that the rest of the swarm would fly back to their hives. He also said that spring was a time where swarms of bees might sometimes travel a fair distance (up to 6 to 6.5 km) to find a new home, but it was certainly not advisable to let them set foot. We definitely ought to thank him for taking the trouble to clean up a mess that he wasn’t responsible for!
但他為何會殺蜂呢？後來他告訴我們，他是下午兩點到兩點半檢查蜂箱時，他的蜂才會飛出來（有時他的蜜蜂也會逃到我們的後花園，然後得勞煩他接「皇后」回朝，其他的才會乖乖跟隨），這次肯定不是他的蜜蜂，他又說，春天時會不時有一群群蜜蜂會遠飛他處，最多可飛6至6.5公里，可能是迷途，可能是想築新窩，不曉得是甚麼風把這些蜂吹過來，但千萬不可讓牠們落戶，他這次義務為我們清除此害，真的要好好感激！
Flying bees in my neighbour’s backyard has become quite a common occurrence of late, and it can be as frequent as twice or thrice a week. My neighbour is probably getting quite keen to squeeze every drop out of the hives (so to say) when he inspects them. He told us that the harvest didn’t look particularly promising so far, but there’s still time to catch up while many flowers are still in full bloom. His bees don’t need to look far; they just have to come and work hard in our backyard more often!
最近他檢查蜂箱挺頻密，一週兩、三次，想必他是急於收成了。他說今年收成不太好，趁現在玫瑰仍到處盛開，他的蜜蜂得加把勁，多多在我們的後花園流連，努力工作了！
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