roadrunner20

roadrunner20

Well Known Member
Upon returning to HBC from War Birds, a swarm of bees surrounded me as I approached my plane which was parked next to James Clark's RV6.
Fifteen minutes later, the swarm had decided to settle on James wingtip. Being a new beekeeper, I was fascinated by the event. A local beekeeper was called to capture the swarm by locating & moving the queen into the swarm box. The queen is noticeably larger & within seconds, she was captured & relocated to the box. The other bees began to follow along. It was suspected the bees swarmed due to the airshow, especially when the Thunderbirds were flying & the bees may have mistaken it for a thunderstorm & looking to protect the queen.

James was looking to make a quick exit home after the airshow, and had been sequestered in his RV waiting for the airshow to end & not have any bees ride home with him to SC.
I coordinated with the HBC team to get him first in line to bug out so he could make a "bee line" for his departure.


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This has got to be one of the most unique threads EVER on VAF! Thanks for bringing us the stories with pictures!!

James gets the “courage” award for closing that canopy for flight with the thought in the back of his mind that there might be a stray bee (or two….) stowed away somewhere in the cockpit….
 
Ironflight said:
This has got to be one of the most unique threads EVER on VAF! Thanks for bringing us the stories with pictures!!

James gets the “courage” award for closing that canopy for flight with the thought in the back of his mind that there might be a stray bee (or two….) stowed away somewhere in the cockpit….
Click to expand...
Supposedly they don’t sting when they’re swarming. OTOH, if the swarm follows the box and a couple of stragglers get stuck in the cockpit, maybe they don’t feel bound by swarm rules.
 
Bee’s are cool. RV’s are cool. It’s obvious the Bee’s know not to swarm on a Cessna or something. ;)

We have a resident hive at our farm. Only once have I been lucky enough to see them swarm. It’s is a really fun thing to watch. They were captured by a local beekeeper and are doing well up river from our place. We tried capturing them with bait boxes, but no luck.
Guess we need to park my RV there !
 
A few weeks ago we went for a hamburger day and upon take off we realized we had a third passenger, a bee, in a two seater RV. He was rather cool and unprovoking but as a safety measure, my wife decided to use her hat to provide her a bit of protection and held her in the hat till we landed at KHAF. The entire day we wondered if s/he was going to have to fly solo back home and if his/her spouse would be really mad for not texting to inform s/he will be late for for dinner.
 
roadrunner20 said:
Upon returning to HBC from War Birds, a swarm of bees surrounded me as I approached my plane which was parked next to James Clark's RV6.
Fifteen minutes later, the swarm had decided to settle on James wingtip. Being a new beekeeper, I was fascinated by the event. A local beekeeper was called to capture the swarm by locating & moving the queen into the swarm box. The queen is noticeably larger & within seconds, she was captured & relocated to the box. The other bees began to follow along. It was suspected the bees swarmed due to the airshow, especially when the Thunderbirds were flying & the bees may have mistaken it for a thunderstorm & looking to protect the queen.

James was looking to make a quick exit home after the airshow, and had been sequestered in his RV waiting for the airshow to end & not have any bees ride home with him to SC.
I coordinated with the HBC team to get him first in line to bug out so he could make a "bee line" for his departure.


View attachment 60734View attachment 60735View attachment 60736
Click to expand...
A **major** thanks to Dan and the other two bee-keepers for helping me with this.

I was "bee-sides" myself upon seeing this. I was already going to be late departing SnF as the Thunderbirds' routine was going to last longer than the normal times.

I had never seen anything like it before. Also there was someone at my plane about five minutes BEFORE and there were no bees.


As I said elsewhere, sometimes "it just bees that way!" . :)
 
Ironflight said:
This has got to be one of the most unique threads EVER on VAF! Thanks for bringing us the stories with pictures!!

James gets the “courage” award for closing that canopy for flight with the thought in the back of his mind that there might be a stray bee (or two….) stowed away somewhere in the cockpit….
Click to expand...
It was a bit interesting as we had to pull the plane away from tie-down and get it lined up for engine start. I wanted to make sure that I was FIRST to start with the canopy CLOSED. Anyone starting before me would cause them to be swarming again and I DEFINITELY did not want another passenger.

Now, convincing my passenger that we needed to be in that tip-up "hotbox" in order to not pick up a stray passenger was a bit. It was HOT!!!!!!.

I was also hoping that there were no strays in random places like the fresh air NACA scoop, that would get blown into my mouth during flight.o_O🐝🐝o_O🐝🐝o_O🐝🐝 As I said, there is MORE! (To be mentioned later.)
 
Remember all the bees are female except in spring and summer they will have 8 or 10 males to breed new queens, if they survive to fall, they kill the males. If you get a honey bee in your airplane make it as cold as you can. They don’t like cold. The queen is kept at about 95 degrees year round. They can only sting once and then they die.
 
jclark said:
A **major** thanks to Dan and the other two bee-keepers for helping me with this.

I was "bee-sides" myself upon seeing this. I was already going to be late departing SnF as the Thunderbirds' routine was going to last longer than the normal times.

I had never seen anything like it before. Also there was someone at my plane about five minutes BEFORE and there were no bees.


As I said elsewhere, sometimes "it just bees that way!" . :)
Click to expand...
Just goes to show ...no substitute for a good pre-flight inspection ...see all y'all at KOSH
:cool:
 
jclark said:
It was a bit interesting as we had to pull the plane away from tie-down and get it lined up for engine start. I wanted to make sure that I was FIRST to start with the canopy CLOSED. Anyone starting before me would cause them to be swarming again and I DEFINITELY did not want another passenger.

Now, convincing my passenger that we needed to be in that tip-up "hotbox" in order to not pick up a stray passenger was a bit. It was HOT!!!!!!.

I was also hoping that there were no strays in random places like the fresh air NACA scoop, that would get blown into my mouth during flight.o_O🐝🐝o_O🐝🐝o_O🐝🐝 As I said, there is MORE! (To be mentioned later.)
Click to expand...
I can't wait...
 
I can handle a stray bee but a snake might cause me to leave the airplane in flight. West Texas had snakes all over the palace until the oil drilling pretty much chased them away. A long ride form town to the airport in Wink TX years ago, before daybreak. Rattlesnakes all over the road. Relatively rare now.
 
jrs14855 said:
I can handle a stray bee but a snake might cause me to leave the airplane in flight. West Texas had snakes all over the palace until the oil drilling pretty much chased them away. A long ride form town to the airport in Wink TX years ago, before daybreak. Rattlesnakes all over the road. Relatively rare now.
Click to expand...
roadrunner20 said:
Upon returning to HBC from War Birds, a swarm of bees surrounded me as I approached my plane which was parked next to James Clark's RV6.
Fifteen minutes later, the swarm had decided to settle on James wingtip. Being a new beekeeper, I was fascinated by the event. A local beekeeper was called to capture the swarm by locating & moving the queen into the swarm box. The queen is noticeably larger & within seconds, she was captured & relocated to the box. The other bees began to follow along. It was suspected the bees swarmed due to the airshow, especially when the Thunderbirds were flying & the bees may have mistaken it for a thunderstorm & looking to protect the queen.

James was looking to make a quick exit home after the airshow, and had been sequestered in his RV waiting for the airshow to end & not have any bees ride home with him to SC.
I coordinated with the HBC team to get him first in line to bug out so he could make a "bee line" for his departure.


View attachment 60734View attachment 60735View attachment 60736
Click to expand...
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