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Author Topic: Bee Attack ???  (Read 9449 times)

Offline prestonpaul

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Re: Bee Attack ???
« Reply #20 on: January 12, 2013, 04:45:04 pm »
Thanks for following this up for us Simon. It's good to have some first hand information instead of third hand misinformation  :roll:
What you have said sounds far more feasible than the news article.
Oh, and welcome to the site.
Paul

Offline Geoff

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Re: Bee Attack ???
« Reply #21 on: January 12, 2013, 05:18:07 pm »
   I would also like to say thank you Simon. Back to my original post I only put 2 question marks after my query and in hindsight I should have put more. It is great that someone in the area has come back with local knowledge and that my calls to the people involved were also very courteous and as helpful to the extent of their experiences.
PS   A warm welcome to the forum Simon.
Local Area Network in Australia - the LAN down under.

Offline Simon

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Re: Bee Attack ???
« Reply #22 on: January 17, 2013, 08:58:12 pm »
I have just been talking to Harold and Pat and they are still fuming about how the whole "Bee Attack" incident was reported and they still have no idea who went to the papers with the story.  Poor Harold is still on medication to get rid of the "itch" he sustained from the hammering he received, but he looks OK and and his stirring ability seems unimpaired.  They said that a certain government department wanted to get involved and have an autopsy performed on the horses, but the vet refused to exhume them as he already knew full well what was their cause of death.  This department also recommended taking action against the commercial beekeeper whose hives were 2 paddocks away and more than likely completely innocent (especially based on his bees' track record over the last few decades of being gentle).  Of course, that went down well with the Chilcotts ...NOT!! :evil:

It appears that the guilty bees came from the bush behind where the horses were.  The horses were last seen dozing around their water trough minding their business, but they were in the flightpath of the bees.  The swarm must have continued down the road as the excavator driver that had just buried the horses drove through them on the way home.

Pat has a few samples of the hot little girls, so I will take their portraits to post here.  From Pat's description, it sounds like they are pretty dark coloured.

Offline Simon

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Re: Bee Attack ???
« Reply #23 on: January 20, 2013, 09:12:08 pm »
I received a small jar of bees today that Pat and Harold retrieved from the cab of their truck where Harold tried to get away from them.






I was pretty surprised to find that they are no where near as dark coloured as I was expecting, they are fairly Italian looking, but they are very small.  I was definately expecting some nice shiny West Coast Black Bees straight out of the Tarkine Wilderness.  I eyeballed them against a few specimens that are on my lavender this morning and found that they are only about half to three quarters of the size of the live bees outside.  I'm not sure what a couple of weeks drying out in the cab of a truck would have on the size of the bees, but probably not that much in width, maybe a little in length as their stomachs etc contracted.  They must be (have been) survivors, and certainly not horse lovers. :'(
« Last Edit: January 25, 2013, 07:38:50 am by buzzbee »