Untitled

Taupo Times, Volume 23, Issue 46, 11 June 1974, Page 1

a culvert and capsized on the Pihanga Saddle road. Said Mr Jansen, who recounted the salvage operation yesterday: "It was the sort of accident that beekeepers have nightmares about. "We got off amazingly lightly. Some damaged hives, a bit of damage to the truck and some injured bees." The cold weather caused most of the bees to stay in their hives — fortunately, said Mr Jansen. Otherwise, there would have been a lot of bees — each of the 175 hives contained between 40,000 and 50,000 bees — buzzing about. The salvage operation took Mr Jansen and an assistant some 14 hours from the time they left Taupo until they returned. The hives had been roped to the truck and were still in place despite the capsize. They had to be offloaded so that a crane hired at Turangi could lift the truck on to its wheels. And bee stings during the operation. . . "We got a few," said Mr Jansen," but fortunately the bees proved no hazard to other motorists." TOP: The roped-together hives rest under the tray of the truck. ABOVE: Wearing protective clothing, a bee handler scrambles on to the truck to off-load the hives.