Bees. LOTS of bees.

[Boyd]

What is going on here? I first noticed these crates stacked up beside the road on 1st Avenue in Peaslee WMA about a week ago. From a distance they looked like those cardboard file boxes that are used to hold records. But upon approaching, they are full of bees! The buzzing was so loud it sounded like some kind of machinery.

And there are a huge quantity, with three different places where they have been dumped. I wondered if maybe this was some kind of program to re-build the bee population (http://forums.njpinebarrens.com/threads/rebuild-sj-bee-population.8159/) but it's hard to believe there wouldn't be some kind of signage if that were the case. And they look like they were just dumped off a truck (a BIG truck).

I didn't save any coordinates, but this first one is somewhere near 1st Ave and Linwood here:

http://maps.njpinebarrens.com/#lat=39.34608007317145&lng=-74.8232889175415&z=15&type=m&gpx=

Continue perhaps a mile Southwest on 1st Ave and you will see the second "bee dump"

The third one is on the powerline road right where it crosses Cape May Ave (Rt 666). There are three separate piles of crates here. I didn't notice as many bees swarming around these, but didn't get very close either. Maybe they got baked by the sun since it's a very exposed location?

http://maps.njpinebarrens.com/#lat=39.32008923611867&lng=-74.82281684875488&z=15&type=topo&gpx=

Some of the crates are labeled "Ts B-FARM". A very quick Google search didn't find anything relevant. Does this mean something to anyone here? Very strange....

 

[Teegate]

That is a very common practice around farms. When DeMarco owned his bogs he allowed them to be stored there and then shipped to the other bogs in the area. They were at that time brought up from Florida.

Today, Jessica and I were at a location in the pines with a trailer and trees around it and the buzzing was so loud Jessica would not go near it. I did not see a bee but there had to have been millions of them in the tree somewhere.

Guy

 

[dogg57]

Yes, Boyd they belong to a local Bee keeper.The Bee Guy email me back to say, yes they were his.I will email you the Info I got

 

[Boyd]

Thanks - that is very interesting. In all my travels around the pines, this is the first time I've ever seen something like this.

 

[manumuskin]

I got stung once driving down 563 past hog wallow because some d&mb@$$ dropped a hive right next to the side of the road and they were riled.As I approached doing 50 I seen a cloud of irate bees hovering over my lane.Too late to stop and slowing would have been a mistake.One swept in a got me on the cheek.I was pissed.I was considerin a lawsuit.I figured it was worth as much as that hot coffee at McDonalds and this was actually Haines fault or the bee peoples fault but since I'm not allergic I probably wouldn't have gotten rich.Whta kind of moron would drop a hive literally within two feet of roads edge?

 

[Boyd]

Speaking of "lots of bees"....

http://www.nypost.com/p/news/local/attack_of_the_bees_WokJWffDWZevVSn0xddJyM#ixzz1wpxK34R9

New York’s beekeeping craze bringing dangerous swarms

“Everybody and their mother says they’re a fourth-generation beekeeper,” Planakis said. “But [bees] can be dangerous if you don’t know how to handle them.”

There are now 161 hives registered with the city Health Department, compared to just three in 2010 — the year beekeeping was legalized.

Colonies are buzzing atop hundreds of homes and tony hotels, including the Waldorf-Astoria and the InterContinental Barclay.

In Brooklyn, the Navy Yard just created the biggest habitat with 20 hives and 20 million bees.

“The hives, and the swarms, have grown exponentially,” said Andrew Coté, founder of the New York City Beekeepers Association. “And the longer they hang on a stop sign or playground, the worse it is for legalized beekeeping.”

Last month, Planakis removed four pounds of bees from a tree on the Bowery and rescued a family when 10,000 honeybees ganged up on their SUV at Pier 92. Then, on Memorial Day weekend, 17,000 bees stormed a fire hydrant in front of Red restaurant at the Seaport.