His phone is ringing all day long. It's the middle of may, the weather is warm, and a slight buzz seems to enliven the city. He's not an important business man, but since few days people are calling him from every part of the city. Wild bees started swarming. Sladjan is beekeeping for more than 20 years, caring for them in his yard of the city center and in the Serbian countryside. In 2006, he created with a friend the « mobilna ekipa za spašavanje pčela » (mobile team to rescue bees) in Belgrade, capital of Serbia. This team is the only one here working to rescue the swarming bees, and they hardly answer the many calls they receive every day during this 2 months of intensive work. Today, he starts his rescue mission with a swarm that end up close to the ministry of education. A slim pine tree in front of the building became the center of attention of the ministry's employees and surrounding neighborhood. The swarm has the size of a small soccer ball, the bees hold strongly on a branch, all tighten around their precious queen. It stand above 8 meters from the ground and Sladjan needs the help of fireman to reach it, gathering some curious passer-by around their big red truck. The operation will last about 1 hour to catch the swarm and reassure the employees of the building, which kept windows closed in spite of the summertime temperature. Sladjan will not loose time to bring the bees in a safe new hive, where they will be feed with Serbian domestic sugar bread called « pogača», the time they build their honeycomb. The only outcome Sladjan gather from his action is the satisfaction of having made something for the bees he saved, that may be killed otherwise by less concerned persons. And the (s)warm surprise of ordinary citizens that got their lives interrupt by the unsettled urban circumstances this rare and magnificent event creates.
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