A WOMAN and her eight-year-old niece were left in agony and needing hospital treatment – and a horse was lucky to survive – after being attacked by a swarm of bees in St Ouen.
Caroline Honeycombe was stung around 60 times during the terrifying ordeal on Monday and her horse Blue was left ‘screaming in pain’ on the ground.
Miss Honeycombe’s sister, Jo, and her niece were also stung but escaped the worst of the attack after their ponies ran off. However, both were left hurt and traumatised. The family, along with Caroline and Jo’s father, Richard, who is the Constable of St Ouen, is now calling for the hives to be moved further away from Mont Huelin, which is the road along which they were walking when the bees attacked.
Miss Honeycombe said the beekeeper, who was collecting honey from his hives when the bees began to sting, had been very helpful in controlling the petrified horses but she called on him to move his hives to a safer location.
Recounting the attack, she said: ‘We were walking down the hill. I was on Blue, my niece was on her five-year-old pony and my sister was leading another pony.
‘We go down that hill regularly. We were chatting away and then all of sudden there were bees everywhere; it was like being in the middle of a beehive. They were so angry. The ponies panicked and ran off, which at least put them out of harm’s way.
‘My horse kept trying to lie down. I was screaming and my horse was jumping all over the place. I have ridden racehorses so fortunately I wasn’t thrown.
‘The beekeeper was there and told us to move away but Blue didn’t want to. To be fair, he was very helpful. He grabbed one of the reins and if he had not been there, I think we might have lost the horse altogether.’
Eventually, Miss Honeycombe managed to move away but she was in agony and Blue was clearly in distress. Her niece had been stung about a dozen times around the head, so she went to Accident and Emergency with her aunt as a precaution.
The girl’s mother, Jo Dawson, said that her daughter was now ‘fine physically but felt exhausted and remained emotional about the experience’.
Having borne the brunt of the attack, Miss Honeycombe vomited regularly while in hospital but began to improve when she was given a drip containing anti-sickness medication.
Her husband, who arrived at the scene not long after the attack, said: ‘The doctor at A&E told Caroline that he had never seen so many stings. She was stung about 60 times and her poor horse was stung around 80 times. He was lying in the road screaming his head off; it was very distressing to see.’
Mr Honeycombe said he had reported the incident to the States police and the parish Chef de Police, and that he was seeking advice from the Environmental Health department and trying to contact the beekeeper.
‘I believe they are too close to the road,’ he said. ‘The beekeeper has a duty of care and when I have his address or email, I will be writing to him.’
Both sisters were recovering at home yesterday after their ordeal, and Blue was visited by a vet three times on Monday and again yesterday.
It is not the first time that bees from the cluster of hives on Mont Huelin, which runs from L’Etacq to Route de la Villaise, have attacked people and animals.
Parishioner Michael Carnegie was stung while walking past the hives three years ago.
‘I was stung about eight times around my neck. It was painful but I managed all right,’ he said. ‘I actually last walked past the hives on Monday but didn’t know there had been an attack that morning. I’ve been told by another beekeeper that they are too close to the road.’
The JEP has tried to contact the beekeeper but had not received a response by the time of going to print.
Why did the bees attack?
JEP nature correspondent Bob Tompkins, who is also a beekeeper, said: ‘The majority of horses are darker-coloured animals and bees, as well as a wasps and hornets, have it mapped in their DNA to defend against dark-coloured animals, such as bears and badgers, who steal their honey in the wild. A dark dog will tend to get stung more than a paler one. Bees can also get particularly aggressive when the honey is being taken off the hives, which is happening at this time of year. After all, you are taking their supplies and they are going to defend that.’
