I had almost given up on keeping bees in Bushmanland in South Africa because of those birds (or something very similar). I needed the bees for the pollenation of 50 acres of mellons, though, so every weekend I shot them in the trees above the apiary. It took about 5 or six times, but they either got the message, or I took out the local population because it got better. They're a very pretty bird, and what a .308 bullet does to them is a caution, but it was either them or me!