In the 70s, in eastern MT, most of the roads are gravel and wind through the hills. One of the largest beekeepers at the time would rocket down these roads, pulling a short trailer with his loader. He kept his bees on 6-pack pallets. He never tied down the load, nor did he tie down or chain down the loader. I'd estimate that he was doing 40-60 mph on gravel - we all did not those roads. It was rare to ever meet another vehicle except an occasional rancher, except in hunting season.
I marveled at watching him zoom past, boxes, swaying and the loader at times appearing to lift off the trailer. Only once did I find a spilled load - and that was on pavement. Of course, I had to call him and tell him where they fell off.
He also never fenced his yards - which were mostly in open-prairie, on hills near alfalfa seed fields, in the lowland areas along the creeks and rivers. He figured that the occasional tipped over hive from the cows or horses was cheaper than building and fixing fences. Once stung the cow or horse wouldn't do it again. That seemed to work for cows, not so much for horses, who like honey as much as we do.
It was windy country, with no shortage of rocks to place on the migratory covers. More than once I found whole apiaries with the lids blown off - the crew forgot to put the rocks back on top. In the fall, I would find isolated apiaries with all of the hives and summer honey crop still sitting in yards hidden behind hills. No GPS in those days, and his crews would over-look the locations. He gained from me doing research - knew I'd call and report problems such as these.
Never seemed to bother him. Real men didn't need ropes, chains, or fences!
Jerry
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