08 November, 2008

Revenge of the Bees

Do you remember the story I told about getting honey from bees about a year ago? We're even.

The time the heavy machinery was just outside our base for road work, I went out to watch them taking down the trees and clear the way. One of the trees ended up being the home to a huge swarm of bees. Everybody cleared out and watched from far away. I was about a quarter mile away, but a few hundred yards closer than most people to get to see the huge swarm still around the big track hoe that they were using to clear the trees. The machine had doors and windows that must have sealed well as there were thousands and thousands of bees swarming around the thing.

A motorcyclist decided he could ride through the swarm without any problems. He was way off! I was a couple hundred yards closer than everyone else, and then I see this motorcycle coming through. I stood in amazement at first, and then as I see a small swarm of bees leave the hoe and follow the rider, I realize he’s not going to be able to continue. The driver is completely encircled, and ends up crashing the bike, and gets up and runs in my direction. Seeing the bees all around him, I turn around and start running away too. I cut down a small path thinking I’ll escape, but the guy heads right for me still, and then a few bees leave him and come after me. So I begin running too and start stripping off my shirt as at least one got caught in it and swinging it at all the bees. Eventually the buzzing all but fades and I kill the final one I hear which is caught in my hair. I escaped with only two stings, but the motorcycle driver had over 50. The result of all that poison in his blood causes him to vomit violently and we ended up taking him to the hospital as he was totally weak and lost control of some of his bodily functions. Thankfully by late evening he was ok, and no one else made the mistake of trying to travel through the swarm until after they calmed down or just found somewhere else to go.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

WHOA! I sorta forgot your blog existed. But what a treat this is now, getting to read a dozen entries at once. What a bigger treat this is getting to picture you fleeing a swarm of angry bees.