Details of Horse & Bee tragedy in East Sussex 2011
..from the secretary of our neighbouring beekeeping association:
I expect by now you may have heard that one of our new members at ##### have had an awful tragedy involving their four horses, which were severely stung. One of the horses managed to jump into the section of the field where several bee hives were kept, and it appears that a hive was knocked over and the horse was stung. The horse panicked, and practically all the hives in the apiary were knocked down, and the horse was severely attacked.
This attracted the other three horses in the field to come over, and these too, were severely stung. As a result, all four horses died of heart failure.
Our sympathy goes out to the members involved, and we would wish to avoid any such thing ever happening again.
This is a very tragic and rare occurrence, and in many places horses are kept near to bees without any problems, but there is an old saying “bees & horses don’t mix”, and it would seem that we need to re-learn a salutary lesson.
Under normal circumstances cattle and sheep are not bothered by bees at all, and it is fine to keep bees in an adjacent field. It is vital , though, that your fences are very well stockproofed.
Many people with chickens keep them close to the bees, and there is no problem there. With horses, it would be sensible to keep a field’s distance between them and the bees, at least 100 yards, and to be aware of bridle paths, etc.
As we know, bees do not like some odours, particularly strong ones, which may contain scents similar to some of their pheromones. An example of this are the citrus type fly sprays, which are reputed to upset the bees. If you handle horses, it is best to wash and change before handling the bees, just to make sure you are not taking any strong odours with you.
This email is going to all of our members and others we believe to have bees, in order to make beekeepers aware of the risks, however rare.
