20,000 Bees Ground A F-22 Raptor

Air Force Times: F-22 Raptor encounters formidable foe — 20,000 honey bees

Of all the challenges aircraft maintainers face, this might have been one of the strangest.

After an F-22 Raptor landed at Joint Base Langley-Eustis, Va., June 11, maintainers discovered that a swarm of honey bees had descended on the fifth-generation fighter, A Defense Department press release noted that “this had never happened on the flightline before.”

The swarm of bees — about 20,000 of them, according to an expert called in by the base — were hanging from the aircraft’s exhaust nozzle.

“The honey bees most likely came from a much larger bee hive somewhere else on base,” said Chief Master Sergeant Gregg Allen, the Air National Guard’s 192nd Maintenance Group quality assurance chief, who, coincidentally, happens to be a beekeeper.

“Bee hives are constantly growing and they eventually become overcrowded,” Allen said. “Around springtime, the bees will make a new queen, scout for a new location and take half of the hive with them to that location.”

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WNU Editor: My brother has a 40,000 bee nest in a tree on the front yard of his home in San Mateo, California. His neighbours and his daughter are freaking out .... but he thinks it is cool. I have a golden rule in these cases .... when it comes to bees and red army ants .... I will never get in their way.

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