Sad Bee Story

A friend of mine decided last spring that he wanted to be a bee keeper, so he got himself 3 bee hives and ordered his bee's from Italy. ( I don't know or understand why). He has apple and peach orchards all around him. So it was a good investment. Anyway last week he had to go away for 3 days when he returned home he found all 3 hives ripped apart. There were bear tracks all around them. I asked him to send pictures. Will pass them on if he does.

 

Perhaps he ordered Italian bees? We have them, ordered from a bee supplier here in Texas. They are docile and good honey producers. They also serenade us with O Sole Mio, and Santa Lucia.
Northern beekeepers learn to surround their hives with electrified wire, with bits of bacon (bait) on it. The bears will stick their sensitive noses against the wire to get the bacon, and get the shock of their lives!
The good part of the story is that the bees were likely not killed--just their honey was robbed. They are probably sitting in a tree somewhere, plotting revenge on that hairy beast.

 

Oh, Donna! I feel for your friend. What a waste! It is too late in the year to do anything for a new hive, other than to either repair if possible the hives he had or start anew. I am surprised that the bear ripped them apart at this time of the year as they generally are looking for protein (larvae) for their diets, the honey is just a bonus. I am really glad we haven't had any bears around here. We have had a few in the area, but they must have been traveling through. Aren't the bears there hibernating yet?

 

Jane, I'll ask him if his bees sing to him. Bacon and barbed wire sounds like a great fix.

Eileen, I hope to talk to him this week and see if he recovered the bees. I know he had to rebuild the hives first.

Carolyn, My guess is this bear was on his or her way to bed and this was a bed time snack. It's been really cold here this week and I'm seeing lots of road kill. I think the weather changed before hibernating instinct kicked in. And before I could cover gardens. Lost most of it):

 

What a heart-breaker!!

I am interested to hear what, if anything he did to try and re-coup. I have heard of hives being salvaged (to a degree) after vandalization.
Of course, perhaps it was all too late by the time he got back home.

I read once of a colony that was vandalixed by humansd whereby the hive was turned-over and broken by "people", if you couild call them that...and it turned out that the queen was still alive and the remnants of the hive was holed-up in a small space between the broken bits. He set them over into a new, normal hive with closure blocks on the ends to make the internal space smaller and gave them some food and they made it in the end.

Naturally, I have no idea how devastated his hives were. It certainly is a sad story, though.

 

Talked with Chuck's mom. She said he was able to repair hives but does not know if he lost the queen yet. He scared the bear off with a few gun shots. He does not want to kill it. He has also put up electric fence and been baiting it with peanut butter. And he took no pictures.

 

Thanks for the update, Donna. My fingers are tightly crossed for this man an his bees. There is hope.