I had place 4 hives down the paddock, but just before the wet season, under a fairly big stringy bark for a bit of shade as the area was pretty dry, not a lot of grass around at the time. a week or so later it started to rain, went out to check the hives, only a two wheel track down this slope to the hives, now the grass was starting to get a go on with the humid days so I reckon I had better get the hives out before the big wet set in, went back out a week later but the ground was too wet to get the ute down to the hives, so I slips on a pair of gum boots, grabs a short length of poly pipe and heads off to the hives. Now the grass is about 4 foot [that 1.2 m I think] As I get near the hives I see the big clumps of bees hanging on all the hives, plus a fairly big brown snake eyeing me off, I wasn't going to have this, the snake gotto go, so I layed into him with the poly pipe, he mustta seen the pipe coming so he takes off, one mighty wollop on the stand the hive was sitting on, took about 4/10 of a second for me to wake up and high tail it out of the place with a big bunch of angry females bearing down on me ,no fun running up hill through thick grass with gum boots on, I broke off a sapling and swished it around trying to scare of the girls but they keep right on coming, by this time I had been hit quite a few times, finally got to the top of the hill, raced past the shed, grabbed a hose laying on the ground turned the tap on and sprayed into the air, that when they gave up the chase and went home, me mate was wondering what was going on and was splitting his sides laughing when I told him the story, any way the snake got the message, havn't seen him to this day, then again it might of been him laying flat out on the road just after a truck went by...........Keep smiling, cheers Lek.
