Author Topic: A new standard on how not to transport bees  (Read 12338 times)

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Offline reidi_tim

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A new standard on how not to transport bees
« on: April 15, 2014, 09:26:12 pm »
Last Saturday I drove down to Walter Kelley with a new Keep to pick up nucs. All was good other then the bees were a little hostile so we pulled up to the semi with the nucs and rolled down the window enough to pass the paper work to those doing the loading. In the process of them loading several bees entered my jeep. So the inside of a black Jeep is the ideal way to calm bees... not. Cranked the A/C and put some protective clothes on. The biggest worry I had was the number of bees seemed to be checking out the inside of the Jeep I would guess that there where 100+ bees out of the box. Made an interesting drive back.

Offline G3farms

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Re: A new standard on how not to transport bees
« Reply #1 on: April 15, 2014, 09:36:08 pm »
 :laugh: :laugh:  nucs in the back seat.

Use to carry three hives of those black german bees in the back seat and three in the trunk of an old plymouth I had.
Veil on and smoker lit sometimes.
I really think the trick was to have all the windows down, can't fly with all of the wind blowing. Got lots of strange looks for sure.

Glad it worked out for you and did not take any stings.
Bees are bees and do as they please!

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Offline blueblood

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Re: A new standard on how not to transport bees
« Reply #2 on: April 15, 2014, 10:03:18 pm »
 :o oh my!

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Re: A new standard on how not to transport bees
« Reply #3 on: April 15, 2014, 10:15:02 pm »
I was carrying empty hive bodies and a lid and bottom board when my truck broke down on Saturday, called a friend who has my nuc in her back  yard and asked her to come pick up the chicken (live) and the bee boxes destined for her house.

The silence was deafening til I explained there were no bees in the boxes

Offline riverbee

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Re: A new standard on how not to transport bees
« Reply #4 on: April 15, 2014, 11:48:51 pm »
tim, i can tell you this is how not to move bees in an old 4 door buick (no air conditioning) loaded in the backseat and a trunk full of bees:

advice for moving bees in an enclosed vehicle of any sort, especially when things come undone......

if a friend asks you to help out, (don't volunteer) bring a veil, matter fact, just wear it.
and don't volunteer to drive.
if the vehicle has had bee go spilled in it, (definitely do not volunteer) or a very strong smell of dog urine in it, or both. definitely do not volunteer.
if you do volunteer, even if it's hot, wear a suit and veil, you won't regret it. the bees want out and so do you...... :D
you don't want to use a smoker in this case.....

if you drive the freeway, speeding is the natural course of action.
this will only delay your progress.
when the state patrol knocks on the window in the state of wisconsin, seeing 2 keeps in veils and realizes there is a vehicle full of bees, you will get a ticket......think.....hot. vehicle off, air-conditioning off or not working and bees flying everywhere inside, and the trooper trying to figure out how to communicate.....

meanwhile, bee go/dog urine suffocation sets in while you are waiting for your ticket, bees flying everywhere trying to get out.  your drivers license and registration will still be required to pass through the small crack rolled up to the top of the drivers window, and you will be given a ticket.... or two or three for other things they can think of that don't quite fit the driving safe regulations on wisconsin freeways.

don't ask me how i know this......... :D
i keep wild things in a box..........™
if you obey the rules, you miss all the fun.....katherine hepburn
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Offline Zweefer

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Re: A new standard on how not to transport bees
« Reply #5 on: April 16, 2014, 07:28:47 am »
As a Wisconsin resident who will be picking up his nucs soon and who will be traveling down I-94 during said trip, I appreciate the advice :)
Keeping of bees is like the direction of sunbeams.
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Offline tbonekel

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Re: A new standard on how not to transport bees
« Reply #6 on: April 16, 2014, 07:46:43 am »
I LOVE THIS FORUM!!!  :laugh:

Offline Jacobs

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Re: A new standard on how not to transport bees
« Reply #7 on: April 16, 2014, 07:59:09 am »
I don't see what was wrong with carrying a few (hundred) bees in the passenger compartment with you.  If I get a swarm and can use my swarm bucket(with vented lid) to collect them, I just belt them in in the passenger seat, roll UP the windows, turn on the air conditioner, and drive home.

When I get home, I roll DOWN the windows and install the swarm in a hive.  The bees leave the car and follow the smell of their hive mates.

As I drive, the bees go to the light and seldom even land on me as I go home.  Stoplights are an absolute blast when people see honeybees flying and crawling on the windows in the car with me.

Offline LazyBkpr

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Re: A new standard on how not to transport bees
« Reply #8 on: April 16, 2014, 09:15:33 am »

if you drive the freeway, speeding is the natural course of action.
this will only delay your progress.
when the state patrol knocks on the window in the state of wisconsin, seeing 2 keeps in veils and realizes there is a vehicle full of bees, you will get a ticket......think.....hot. vehicle off, air-conditioning off or not working and bees flying everywhere inside, and the trooper trying to figure out how to communicate.....

   LOL!!!      PLAN A;    Roll down the window!!!   Police officer runs away!!!!!

     Oh... cr@p its Blue....    PLAN B   get ticket......
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Offline G3farms

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Re: A new standard on how not to transport bees
« Reply #9 on: April 16, 2014, 09:56:28 am »
   LOL!!!      PLAN A;    Roll down the window!!!   Police officer runs away!!!!!

     Oh... cr@p its Blue....    PLAN B   get ticket......

Nope he would just get his veil and suit out of the trunk and keep on writing you a ticket.
Bees are bees and do as they please!

.... --- -   -... . . ...   .-- .. .-.. .-..   .... .- ...- .   -.-- --- ..-   ... - . .--. .--. .. -. --.   .- -. -..   ..-. . - -.-. .... .. -. --.   .-.. .. -.- .   -.-- --- ..- .-.   .... . .- -..   .. ...   --- -.   ..-. .. .-. .   .- -. -..   -.-- --- ..- .-.   .- ... ...   .. ...   -.-. .- - -.-. .... .. -. --.

Offline iddee

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Re: A new standard on how not to transport bees
« Reply #10 on: April 16, 2014, 10:17:48 am »
Or just offer him a nuc.........
“Listen to the mustn'ts, child. Listen to the don'ts. Listen to the shouldn'ts, the impossibles, the won'ts. Listen to the never haves, then listen close to me... Anything can happen, child. Anything can be.”
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Offline riverbee

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Re: A new standard on how not to transport bees
« Reply #11 on: April 16, 2014, 11:35:31 am »
"I don't see what was wrong with carrying a few (hundred) bees in the passenger compartment with you."

jacobs, these weren't nucs we were transporting, these were full hives, 2 in the backseat, and 2 in the trunk. the straps came undone, and the screening job was not what it should have been either, so a few more than a few hundred bees..... :D

the trooper was very annoyed to say the least, and told us not to roll down the windows, meanwhile we were getting gassed out, not to mention the thousands of bees flying around....  :D
he put his cell phone number up to the window. long and the short of it, he was not going to let us drive any further down the freeway, and wanted us to get the bees back in the boxes..... :D
we managed to convince him that our exit was a short distance away.

i have moved nucs and single hives in my jeep wrangler, and when i do, they are strapped tight with good screens on.  i will never volunteer to move bees again in the back of a buick. :D
i keep wild things in a box..........™
if you obey the rules, you miss all the fun.....katherine hepburn
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Offline LazyBkpr

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Re: A new standard on how not to transport bees
« Reply #12 on: April 16, 2014, 12:49:53 pm »
Hey!  I didnt even think about bribing Blue with bees!!!!
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Offline BoilerJim

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Re: A new standard on how not to transport bees
« Reply #13 on: April 16, 2014, 01:22:07 pm »
This reminds me of one of my adventures in transporting a SWARM I had picked up a few miles from home a few years ago.

I work as a police officer and was off duty when a buddy called and said he had a swarm in his yard. I drove my squad over to his house. I sprayed the 3 lb swarm with sugar water before "thumping" them into a cardboard box. After that I duct taped the box shut. NOT realizing the sugar water also got onto the box flaps the duct tape did not stick very well. At least not until I was driving home.

Well you guessed it. The tape came off my cardboard box and out came hundreds of bees. The bees began clinging to the back and side windows of my squad car by the hundreds.

While driving home I pulled up to a road re-paving crew and they had a flagman out on the road working and he flagged me to stop. After I stopped I rolled down the back passenger side window of my squad car and out flew a few hundred bees.

I will NEVER forget the look on the flagman's face! It was an extremely hot day and he looked like he had had a long hard day and his back was slouched over. When he saw hundreds of bees coming out of the back window of a police car his back straightened up, his eyes got as big as silver dollars, he got on his hand held radio and within a few seconds was flagging me through. I can't even imagine what was going though his mind at what he was seeing. I imagine he still tells that story over a brew with his buddies every now and then.
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Offline Perry

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Re: A new standard on how not to transport bees
« Reply #14 on: April 16, 2014, 04:48:08 pm »
Too funny Jim.  :laugh: :laugh: :laugh:
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Offline riverbee

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Re: A new standard on how not to transport bees
« Reply #15 on: April 16, 2014, 05:39:40 pm »
that's too funny jim, a squad car full of bees!!! 

hmmm police officer with a squad car full of bees.............= no writing yourself a ticket!......... :D
i keep wild things in a box..........™
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Offline DLMKA

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Re: A new standard on how not to transport bees
« Reply #16 on: April 16, 2014, 05:56:59 pm »
I have two bees in cars (actually the same car, two different times) stories.

First one was my first summer keeping bees. Got a call about a swarm about an hour away on June 30. I initially wasn't going to get it but had them send me a picture so I could call someone closer to go collect them. Once I got the picture I HAD to go, the swarm was hug, big enough that I brought a scale with me to weigh the boxes before and after because no one would believe me that it was almost 9 lbs of bees (8.7 lbs to be exact). They weren't going to fit in a 5-frame nuc box so I brought the very last of my boxes, two mediums with a makeshift plywood bottom board and screened inner cover for transport. Shook the swarm, no problems, got most of the bees wrangled into the boxes, loaded into the trunk, and left. I forgot to mention I had my 4 year old son and a friend's 6 year old daughter with me. My son had been around bees but the girl hadn't. About 5 mins down the road my son says, "Dad, there are bees in here" and indeed there were 2-3 that found their way through the trunk deck to the light inside the car. I figured it was a couple stragglers on the outside of the box, I knew there were a few that didn't make it inside. Keeping an eye on the back I notice more, and more, and more. At this point I figured that the boxes had slid apart and that the single strap holding everything together had shifted. I ended up driving WAY too fast with the A/C cranked as cold as possible to get home and sort things out. I had a back-up plan to stop and another beekeeper's apiary along the way if things turned south. Got to the bee yard and realized that my jacket was in the trunk with 9lbs of bees that were loose. Got the kids out of the car and sent down the way to go pick blackberries. Opened the trunk to find the majority of the bees had left the boxes and were clustered inside the trunk. Carefully scooped the biggest chunk and put them in the hive in it's permanent home and left the trunk open and went down to join the kids picking blackberries. About 20 mins later there were just a few stragglers in the trunk and a couple in the back glass of the car. Crisis averted.

Second good one was last summer I took the day off work mid-week to do a cut-out from a felled tree. Got done about 10:30 and called another place that was needing a colony removed. Had some complications with that one which involved a fire extinguisher, fire trucks, and a host of code violations (another good story in itself). Anyway, got home late, was hot, tired, and hungry. Figured I could clean up the car the next day. Next morning on my way to work rolled the passenger window down in the car and the regultor broke and the window dropped into the door, nice day with no chance of rain so left the window down while at work. Got a call from receptionist after lunch asking what kind of car I drove. I told her and she said I had a little problem and needed to go out right away. Went out and security, and grounds maintenence guys were looking at my car with hundreds, if not THOUSANDS of bees on and in my car. I forgot about a garbage bag of bits of comb with honey from the cut-outs the day before. I wasn't planning on staying at work until after dark and security was about to have my car towed. I told them what was going on and after everyone was settled down I got in and drove the car home after shooing out as many bees as I could. Those guys still have a good laugh about it when they see me in the halls at the office.

Offline reidi_tim

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Re: A new standard on how not to transport bees
« Reply #17 on: May 30, 2014, 07:14:32 pm »
You know your a keep when you have bee poo on the inside of your windows :laugh:

Offline apisbees

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Re: A new standard on how not to transport bees
« Reply #18 on: June 04, 2014, 12:06:19 am »
A beekeeper was transporting a semi load of bees to Alberta from BC in the spring and the DOT Department of Transport had a 24 hr truck safety blitz set up. The driver asked to stay back in the dark until it was his turn, but the cop in charge told him he needed to stay in the line. As he got closer to the lights more bees were flying from the hives. Up where the inspections were being done one of the inspectors asked, where all the were coming from? When the officer told him there was a truck load of them, he instructed the officer to send the truck down the road. The officer objected saying that the truck had not been inspected yet, to which he replied the truck has bees on it, it's not going to get inspected.
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Offline Beeboy

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Re: A new standard on how not to transport bees
« Reply #19 on: June 04, 2014, 03:06:56 pm »
True story.

My brother is a beekeeper, & even though he is in his 60's he still has it in his blood for hot rods, & he likes to drive them fast.

He got pulled over a couple of years ago by a state trooper. The troops glances in the back floor board, saw a jar of honey & it went something like this.

Trooper: What is that in that jar?
Brother: Fresh honey from me bee hives.
T: So your a beekeeper?
B: Yes I am.
T: Do you sell your honey?
B: Yes I do.

Trooper then pulls out wallet & shows brother a dollar bill. Brother nods, ok. Trooper hands brother dollar, trooper then takes jar of honey & waves goodbye!