The water company killed my honeybees!

[jandrok]

Bastards. See, I have a covered water meter out in front of the house. Over the weekend, we discovered that a hive of honeybees had taken up residence in there. They were nice, gentle bees; the European variety, not the more aggressive Africanized bees.

Anyway, we really didn't want to have the bees in the water meter, so we called the water company to see how they wanted to handle it. In short, their policy is that they take responsibility for removing the bees, but they do so by killing the hive. What a frickin' bummer. I got up this morning and discovered that the water company must have come out in the late evening and poisoned the hive. There was no activity at all. I opened the meter cover to discover a large and elaborate hive system, full of honey. The hive had obviously been there for a while.

I was really hoping that the hive could have been relocated rather than killed. I like honeybees. I have always wanted to be an amateur beekeeper, but have never committed to it as a hobby. Still, I have a lot of respect for the hardworking honeybees. They're an integral part of the ecosystem. I really got kind of attached to my little hive of industrious bees. They were fun to watch.

I'm sad to see this little hive put out of business in such a lethal and final way.

[knowbody0]

1. you should have called a honey bee farmer

i did, and they happily transfered mine

[jandrok]

6. Yeah, we learned a lesson from this experience, for sure.

Next time we'll just take care of it on our own and leave the water company out of it. I would have gladly paid someone to come out and peacefully relocate the hive.

[MuseRider]

Next time call

a bee keeper to move your hive. Most people would rather kill than go to the extra effort to move something or trap something to move it. I am sorry, that is so sad.

[The Straight Story]

2. Damn Sad

My dad has over 50k bees in his hives out back (he lives next door to me and we live in an urban area). Bees are in short supply in ohio thanks to the vampire mites (which wiped his out last year and we had to go out of state to get bees). When hives like yours pop up people like my dad and other bee folk try to go out and rescue them and use them (and they can be rented out to farmers).


Sounds like some bee keepers in your area should hook up with water company and offer to handle em for free (they could make money off the bees later).

[jandrok]

9. That's a good idea, actually.

I might try to contact some local beekeeprs and put them in touch with the folks at the water company. There might be some interest in hooking the groups up.

[Straight Shooter]

3. That is really low and dirty. Honeybees are valuable to the ecosystem.

They poisoned them, and that poisoned the honey, too. Bunch of worthless numbnuts, probably scared of them.

I hope you'll build a beehive and follow your hobby. My father had a beehive and you would not believe how delicious fresh honey is. Even the comb is edible.

He never got stung, not once. He didn't wear protective clothing, either. He was always just calm and collected around them. I'm the same way around bees, too. I think they're fascinating.

Sorry about your loss.

[jandrok]

7. Thanks.

Yeah, I might go ahead and follow through with my beekeeping thoughts. I have the land and the space now.

[brainshrub]

4. What a shame. You shoulda called a bee-keeper.

I would have taken them.

[jandrok]

8. Lesson learned.

If it happens again, and apparently it does with some frequency here, I'll contact a beekeeper myself and leave the water company out of it.

[Richard D]

5. Near where I live . . .

. . . is a beautiful park in a secluded canyon. There was a bee hive on one of the cliffs that had been there as long as anyone could remember.

Someone complained to the park service and said it "might be" Africanized someday. Two days later the hive was killed.

Liability issue? I don't know. Every time I walk past that place my heart hurts, and it's been at least 4 years since the hive was killed.

[brainshrub]

10. You broke my heart with that story.

What a shame.