Blog reader Brian tipped us off to yesterday's Astros vs. Padres game in San Diego, where a bee swarm interrupted play for 52 minutes.
The ESPN recap of the incident is Exhibit A of bee ignorance, capped by anchor Linda Cohn pointing out cheerfully that after the delay, "They got back on the field—not the bees, they were all dead."
Apparently the Padres have someone they refer to as a beekeeper on speed dial, but from the footage he looks a lot more like an exterminator.
Here's the clip—you be the judge.
7/3/09
Baseball gets an F in beekeeping.
Russell 7/3/09
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10 Responses:
I agree - no effort to do anything except to kill them, as fast as possible. Sad to see him scooping up dead bees with both hands and dumping them into the bag... :-(
It made me sick. They kept calling him a beekeeper. It made me sicker. What a wasted opportunity!
Sick to my stomache as well :(. That was no beekeeper, more likely the pesky pest control agent masquarading as a beekeeper. The bees looked to be bothering no one. They could have just put a plastic tent to enclose till game over & collected after game or in evening. No wonder there is a bee shortage as so many uninformed homo sapiens fearful to admit the natural world knows better than them.
Lets hear PETA's outrage on this. Hopefully its louder than the out cry of Obama squashing that poor fly.
Nobody in the stands said/did anything? MLB has no contingency plans (other than murder) for bees on the field? Why couldn't that guy have simply put the jacket in a box and taken the whole bunch away? Sheesh.
What a shame. (Don't beekeepers KEEP bees?)
That could have been a really bee-friendly news clip, a beekeeper could have had a lovely swarm, started a new hive from it, and some baseball fans could have learned some good (and accurate) stuff.
If I'd been there they'd have come home and lived in a Gold Star Top Bar Beehive!
-- Christy Hemenway
GOLD STAR HONEYBEES
Bath, Maine 04530
207-449-1121
www.goldstarhoneybees.com
Remember that this is Africanized Honey Bee (AHB) territory. AHB have no place in our hive boxes. Come on down to Orlando Fla where we now have AHB and work some of our bees that have come from Orlando bee removal jobs and you'll change your mind. They become mean as fire and don't easily accept new European queens.
Point taken, Richard. But to my knowledge, San Diego isn't Florida, in terms of AHB. Even if this swarm was ultimately un-usable, I still think there could have been a less violent and more educational way to collect and remove them.
I have been beekeeping for under a year now and I am 3 hives strong. I am going out to get two more groups of bees out of a house and out of a tool building this weekend. This story made me sick, beekeeping my A** try bee killers. All that was needed was pick up the queen and all would follow, took more time to kill and destroy then to remove the queen. Again under one year of beekeeping, and this story was not about beekeeping.
Bee_Sanctuary@columbus.rr.com
People like to use the term Africanized as a Justification for Killing bees.People have used similar Justifications to Mistreat Black People Gay People Stupid People or just People in Genral.I think a intelegent person who understood bees could go up with a big black garbage bag slip over the chair coat bees hold it shut take the bees away let them go.That way the ball girl wouldn't have to wear a contaminated coat.I figure Inteligent people do Inteligent things.Stupid people do stupid things.
Kirkobeeo has spoken
We hear you, O Wise One!
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