This story was first published for the Apiarist’s Advocate – a monthly eMagazine for beekeepers. The original version is from the February 2021 edition which can be viewed here (my story is on page 12).
The most unexpected thing happened to me while beekeeping one late summer afternoon. Harvest time was finished and my hives were getting their twice-annual brood checks and varroa treatment. I was out at one of my bush sites in the Waitakere Ranges of West Auckland. The day was warm but not hot, and I was focused on getting my hives done so I could head home for the day.
A voice through the trees shouted at me: “Come out of the bushes or we’ll set the dog on you!”
‘What the heck?’ I thought.
“What?!” I shouted back impatiently. I was a little confused and didn’t really have the bother to stop my work. I wasn’t even certain it was talking to me – I could see no one and wasn’t quite sure which direction it had come from.
“Come out of the bush or we’ll set the dog on you!”, demanded the voice again.
“Who are you??” I shouted back. Now I was less annoyed and more confused by the interruption.
“Police!” replied the voice. ‘What is going on?’ I wondered.
Since I had actually just finished at that moment, I picked up my smoker and an empty hive box and walked down the little track back to the road. Emerging through the trees I looked down on the road and found that I was faced by four police officers. Another police car was rolling up a nearby driveway.
My first assumption was that there must be something bad going down in the area and they needed to clear civilians like me out of harm’s way. All four faces were somewhere between amused and incredulous.
As I stood on the bank above the road, fully kitted in my bee suit, the lead officer spoke first: “I guess it’s pretty obvious, but what are you doing?”
It turned out that a neighbor had seen me roll up in my truck, put on a suspicious looking outfit, and then disappear into the bush near someone else’s house. They called the police, who dispatched three patrol cars carrying at least five officers, tasers ready at the belt. The dog I had been threatened with was a bit of a bluff: when I asked they told me the dog handler was still on his way – and then called HQ to let them know he wasn’t needed after all.
The officers looked as though this had all been a disappointing waste of time. It probably didn’t end up especially high on their list of best work stories, but it is good to know our men and women in blue are vigilant to keep the Waitakere Ranges clear of suspicious people like me, and they left me with what will certainly remain my number one beekeeping work story for many years to come!
