Hello All,
If you have not heard the group insurance for ABF members is changing
companys with the old insurance company saying they simply can not provide
coverage.  Each bee operation will be evaluated on its own merits to see if
coverage will be provided and a estimate will be mailed back after the forms
are sent to their office. Before ALL ABF members were accepted.  My form was
mailed to Hartford about a week ago.  I should know soon about the costs.
The new company has raised the liability for the entry level policy by
1,000,000 so i expect the entry level fees to go up.
Why the change?  The basic policy went up by almost $100 two years ago with
the old company after being the same all the time i have bought insurance.
Why the change?
"Attack of the Killer Bees"
I believe the news media are and are going to be the problem.  As * Joe
Friday* from the old detective story said.
We are only interested in the facts.  Only the facts.
Our local channel 5 reporter Brian Webb tried to turn a tragic wreck into a
bee scare story last spring but the people involved all were aware of his
motives.
 A  semi  loaded with beehives was sitting at the entrance to a rest area on
I29 north in Platte county Missouri about six am in the morning .  Two
people in a car drunk drove into the back of the semi loaded with beehives.
killing one of the people in the car. The axle was knocked crossways from
the trailer on the semi and  four hives of bees were dislodged from one
skid.  The driver of the truck was not charged as the truck was legally
parked.
Brian Webb called me wanting to come out and get a picture of a open hive of
bees and ask a few questions.  I said sure as long as you put in writing i
get to approve the final story for correctness.  Needless to say he didn't
come out.  When the story ran on the news  the story was about how dangerous
a load of millions of stinging bees were and very little  about two drunk
people in a car plowing into a parked semi of bees.  People have to be
pretty drunk to drive into a truck loaded with white beehives.
The driver of the load of bees did not own the bees.  He simply moved bees.
The bees were picked up in a holding yard and he didn't know who owned the
bees.  He asked Brian" bees are freight to me and i carry insurance so what
difference does the ownership matter to your story"?
A company out of Kansas arrived to transfer the bees to another flatbed.
They told Brian they were asked not to tell who hired them to transfer the
beehives.  Brian was very upset when he talked to me.  I told him he should
work on the car accident story and leave the "danger to the public angle
out".  On the evening of the second day the story was focused on the point
that the car driver had been given a driving while intoxicated  and that the
bees had been removed without incident.  My point is for all to understand
that Brian Webb wanted to turn a tragic car wreck into a front page news
story at the beekeeping industrys expense.  When a wreck happens and the
news media calls you try to do damage control for the benefit of the
industry.
Sincerely,
Bob Harrison
Beekeeper with a commercial truck drivers license.
retired Teamster of 30 years
over 2,000,000 miles without a chargeable accident.