Men Hospitalized After Purposely Driving Into Bee Yard

[BigRog]

Men Hospitalized After Purposely Driving Into Bee Yard

POSTED: 5:02 pm EDT July 14, 2005
UPDATED: 6:18 pm EDT July 14, 2005

LAKE COUNTY, Fla. -- Deputies said some young men chose the wrong place to vandalize. They drove right into beehive colonies to see what would happen and the result was what you might expect. Several of them were taken to the hospital.


"By throwing it off, the bees got all stirred up and come up in the air after 'em," explained beekeeper David Miksa. "It's very upsetting. We have a lot of work to re-do, to fix up the hives."
 
Two boxes make up a colony, with 25,000 to 30,000 bees in each one. So it's not the best idea to drive into them and see what happens. But Miksa said teenagers usually try it at least once a year.

"There's no excuse to be near the bee yard that close," Miksa said.

The bee yard is hidden away inside acres of orange groves. But deputies say 18-year old Adam Tyson, 20-year-old Jason Krueger and two younger teens found them anyway, backing their truck right in. But then their truck got stuck in the sand and they had to call 911 when hundreds of thousands of bees started swarming.

 
"A lot of 'em were probably just trying to get back to their home and their home was mashed all over the ground," Miksa explained.

All of the boys were stung. At least two went to South Lake Hospital for treatment. Miksa said, with millions of bees in his hives, the boys could have been killed.

"I don't want to see anybody get stung up bad and I think it's a lesson to be learned by anybody who wants to try to mess around with beehives that the possibility of being hurt is definitely there," Miksa said.

The trespassing charges the four already face are sort of like traffic tickets, but deputies said they could also face a more serious charge of criminal mischief for disturbing the hives.

Miksa said the damage to his hives could cost him up to $5,000. Many of the bees were queens that were disturbed in the middle of the mating season.

Copyright 2005 by wftv.com. All rights

[Miss Chick-a-BEE]

I always get a laugh out of these goofy journalists that make dumb comments about bees.

Like this comment:

Many of the bees were queens that were disturbed in the middle of the mating season.

They make is sound like they were in the middle of a pod of killer whales during mating season, or tackling a buck in rut! LOL What a stupid comment! Do they really know that little about bees?

(sigh) Another reason I hate journalists. They're stupid, along with the fact they never actually research any of their own stories.

Beth :)

[Robo]

Like this comment:

Many of the bees were queens that were disturbed in the middle of the mating season.

Beth :)

Miksa is a queen breeder,  so I'm sure it was just poor journalism trying to get the point across.

What a shame,  David Miksa is a great asset to the beekeeping industry.

[AdmiralD]

Dang, some kids....

They have to learn the hard way....And some are just plain stupid with a car....

I hope the police put each of those kids on driving suspension for at least one 1year. It will do them some good to leard to walk to work.  :roll:

[Barny]

I had a similar instance where a farm hand would purposely drive his tractor into some hives to knock them over.  I guess he reasoned they would die, and all but one hive did die over the winter.  None of this can be proved, but it must take a really strong wind to lift a brood super off a pallet with clips  :x .  So there went about 20 hives to the big flower in the sky.

[TREBOR]

Wow,
   I was thinkin the perfect payment is to have them work for the man for a year or more, then they might understand what it is that they did
 and how much work it is, and hell you never know they might like beekeeping!!!!!
     ya maybe he could make them carry full supers in the hot sun for hours and hours and hours and days and weeks and months  :)  :D  :o  :lol:  :x  :twisted:  :twisted:

[BigRog]

I was thinking felony malicious destuction and time in jail,
after all they are endangering a man's livelyhood

[Jerrymac]

I have to go along with TREBOR. Have the distructive kids rebuild the equipment, and pay for the material. Then have to serve a number of hours keeping the bees. Why should the tax payers pay for them to stay in jail. Hard labor at taking care of what they committed the crime against.

I also think it would rehabilitate them into society better than a prison term.

[TREBOR]

Rog,
  I didn't mean workin them a little,
I meant more like to death!!!!!!!!
  and a little more.
 I do not have a soft spot for this type of people
I stopped doin that kind of stuff when I was 10
 And I was no angel.
 prison is more like vacation time, and like jerry
I'd rather not pay for that, my taxes should be spent on
education and roads  not for some vandel that can't get a girlfreind
at the age of twenty and has no life!!!!!!!!!!
 
 Boy that really pee'd me off that someone that is that age is still
doin that kind of stuff, my daughter will be twenty soon , if she brought him home I'd be in jail.

[JP]

ditto!

[AdmiralD]

I have to agree with you guys about getting them to work with the bees and lifting the loads to places...And I am not above making life a bit hard on them,tho,  like taking away driving privilages for 6 months to 1 year. After all, first it's the sound of colonies crashing against the car/truck, next it could be an animal, then a human...Sorry, they can't have thier car for bashing things. That's not what cars are for...

After working the bees for 6 months, carless, well they might have paid back their debt to society and learned something in the mean time.

[BigRog]

OK
But they have to work the hives naked

[Yarra_Valley]

But they have to work the hives naked

They have to be smeared in honey also :evil:. You could also attach those ball and chain thingis to their ankles so they can't get away :twisted:.

I'm with BigRog on this one.

[Horns Pure Honey]

I hid my apiary and put a steel fence around it. :) That stinks for that beekeeper. :(