Posted on 01/17/2018 12:44:20 PM PST by nickcarraway
A bee killer toppled 100 beehives in Prunedale and sprayed hundreds of thousands of honey bees with gasoline over the weekend.
The honey bees were being kept on Mike Hickenbottom's Prunedale property along Eacho Valley Road during the winter. The bees are owned by a man who lives in the Central Valley, where it's too cold during winter months, and they like feeding from eucalyptus trees that flower on the Central Coast during this time of year.
Advertisement Hickenbottom believes his neighbors were behind the incident, partially because they had complained to him three times.
The bees are allowed to fly freely around the property, and Hickenbottom's neighbors said their children were too scared to go outside.
Hickenbottom said the Italian and Russian honey bees are not aggressive.
"I go up around the bee boxes without any protective clothing on. I've never been stung," he said.
Beekeeper Alfonzo Perez KSBW Beekeeper Alfonzo Perez The vandals struck sometime between 10:30 a.m. and 3 p.m. Saturday.
"Somebody came here, and tipped over all the boxes, and sprayed them with diesel fuel. It killed a whole bunch of bees," beekeeper Alfonzo Perez.
An estimated 200,000 bees died.
Perez leases the hives to pollinate almond trees growing on farms across Californian.
The bee killing cost Perez more than $50,000, a huge chunk of his annual salary.
"I just feel really bad for Alfonzo because he work so hard to support his family. Then somebody goes and does something like this," Hickenbottom said.
DONATE: If you want to donate to beekeeper Alfonzo Perez, click here
A police report was filed with the Monterey County Sheriff's Office. No arrests have been made.
If the neighbor’s kids are afraid of bees, that is the parent’s problem-not the beekeeper’s-so put little hazmat suits on them before letting them out of their bubble-can’t have them exposed to the natural world...
There are several people who keep bees and sell honey on just about every road out here-local honey is a big selling item at the farmers’ markets and health food stores in the area-I’m pretty sure if some ass*** wrecked a beekeeper’s personal property and income like that, they’d get a visit from the injured party they would not like or forget-frontier justice is still done in rural areas...
I kept bees for 12 years. Got out because of the mites.
They ever figure out what caused CCD?
After seeing the price of honey I’ve considered going back into business.
I see what you did there.
work your beehive to the bone - whadda ya get?
boney bees - boney bees
What training program did you use to teach them? Are there Bee Trainers available?
No kidding! And any bees that learn to take off and fly but skip the classes on how to land should be put on a watch list.
I don’t know what goes on in some peoples heads.
-v-v-v-v-v-v-
I do.....
I think the mites are most of it. You have to learn to manage and treat to kill the mites. Then the bees stay alive and healthy. Mites reproduce even faster than bees so by Aug, Sept the hive is loaded with mites and working as hard as it can to prepare for winter. Its like one more mite hatching cycle and BAM, the hive is overwhelmed and crashes fast. Then all those mites seek out the closest hives to feed off of. Call it a “mite bomb”.
Just like having dogs and not taking care of your fleas and ticks. Its a responsibility not everyone will be as diligent at. And parasites literally suck the life right out of the hive.
Going into my 3rd year. Man, its cold!
Without bees, humanity wouldn’t exist.
They’re all carrying chemical weapons. We need background checks and licensing for them.
Its for the children.
Aha! - the bees knees.
If they’re not learning to land they’re planning a suicide mission ... into the teeth of a biker!
I’d support coating him/her/it with honey and staking him/her/it to the top of a fire ant hill
Good shot!
I live in south florida. We don’t have cold here. Do the mites do better in warmer climates? What are they using to treat the mites? We just quarantined ours. We moved them away from the other hives and didn’t let them get near other sites. We only a hobby size operation. Any websites you could recommend on the mites?
this is some sick shite ... i donated to the gofundme page for the bee keeper ...
https://www.gofundme.com/alfonsos-honey-bees-vandalized
Mites are coast to coast. Kansas wx doesnt seem to slow them down any. Those darn drones! They dont stay at their own hive. They galavant all over the place and bring other mites back with them in case you didnt already have enough. And drone larve takes a few more days than workers so the mites like to lay in drone brood and get a free generation out of the extra time. Florida heat you also are going to fight Small Hive Beetles. I dont have to worry about them so far.
http://www.beesource.com/forums/index.php
I have 3 top bar hives in my back yard. One of the standard treatments is “Oxalic Acid Vaporization”. Heating a small quantity of Oxcalic acid crystals, inside the hive until the acid sublimates into fine crystals all over the inside of the hive. Kills the mites, doesnt harm the bees. Treat each hive and stay ahead of the mites and your bees will live. There is a smattering of other things that can go wrong. Florida not having a winter will enter in to your management. Look around, you may be able to capture a swarm or help out another local by holding on to a hive or two for a while.
I have a blast doing it and am trying to get the grand kids into helping harvest the honey.
I eat my peas with honey;
I’ve done it all my life.
It makes the peas taste funny,
But it keeps them on the knife.
O.N.
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