Bee Folks,

A while back our illustrious Jim elaborated as to why we should
not “abuse” the meager resources of many of our rural, volunteer fire
departments, running mostly on a shoe-string budget, if at all.  I agree;
however, here is a slight twist in the scenario: how about a city fire
department?  Yesterday, when I returned from McAlester, Oklahoma, having
just bought three mares (two buckskins and one Palomino) for my girls to
ride, now that I am on summer vacation, I had a swarm messages recorded
both at home and at work, awaiting.  When I arrived at the scene there
were two identical size swarms, about three to four pounder, dangling very
high, about two to three hours old, at Maine and Beard, downtown Shawnee.
As you can see in this newspaper article below, they were way up there,
making a conventional ladder obsolete.  [This year I am observing many
primary swarms pitching way up there.  What’s going on?] Luckily, there
was a fire department, not a volunteer one, within earshot.  I ran up
there and pleaded my case for bees, mostly crocodile-tearing and hectoring
with empty rhetoric.  The crew chief then had to call the Fire Marshal if
they could let me use their Engine Number One with an expandable ladder,
which was located yet in another area of downtown.  After haranguing and
harassing them for ten minutes, I finally was allowed to use the Number
One to remove “public nuisance” as far as I do not *sue* them in case I
fall from using “their” ladder.  (As you can see in the photo, I tried to
use this safety device, at their suggestion, that would hook me into the
ladder; however, it prevented me from getting up to reach the bees.  So I
had to abandon the device.  Careful was I since there was a powerline in
the way, too)  I told him I was on my own like hec.  Of course, I made
sure the newspaper people show up with their camera so that I could
promote the cause for our bees as well as for my summer-time swarm
chaser.  What bothers me, though, is that the lady-reporter wrote “Italy”
bees when in fact I said “Italian bees,” among others.  Arrrrgh.  Go
figure about the lack of public awareness about bees.  “Italy bees” sound
like a bunch of tourists coming from Italy on summer vacation—-to see what
in Oklahoma, tornadoes maybe!?


http://www.news-star.com/stories/052803/New_20.shtml#


Yoon

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