By Richard Hartley-parkinson


The four horses are believed to have been attacked by a swarm of bees before two drowned and another two suffered from anaphylactic shock


Four horses have died after they were attacked by an angry swarm of bees.

Two of them are believed to have suffered from anaphylactic shock and heart failure while the other pair drowned in a pond as they tried to run away from the insects in Nutley, East Sussex.

Owner Anne Gerrard kept the hives in a field near her paddocks and said she was devastated by what had happened.


'It is absolutely heartbreaking. It has been ghastly,' she said. 'We have had the Beekeepers Society here and they say this is unprecedented.

'To lose one horse would have been bad enough, but to lose all four of my horses has been ghastly.

'The bees must have been vicious, it was a horrific attack. I found two of my horses in the pond. It was utterly devastating.'

There were nine hives near Mrs Gerrard's paddock and one of the horses that died from anaphylaxis was found dead on the day of the attack. The other died the next day.

According to Horse and Hound magazine another horse was killed by bees.

Karen Thursfield, from Cheshire, described her horse as being 'out of control' after a suspected bee attack from a hive that had been in her field for 10 years and the next morning he was found dead.

Vet consultant Karen Coumbe told the magazine: 'An incident like this is incredibly rare. I've never encountered anything like it, despite being a beekeeper myself.

'Readers should not be alarmed as individual stings are unlikely to cause major problems. In this case, the huge number of angry bees would have triggered a "fight or flight" reaction.'

Mrs Gerrard, whose horses were aged between two and 20, added: 'We can only guess at what has happened.

'Something disturbed the bees, perhaps one horse jumped out and knocked a hive.

'We've never had any problems before. The hives were in a well-fenced field.'

The Beekeepers Society told her that bees can be upset by the smell of horses and should be kept at least a field away.

She added: 'I have had the bees for about two years and they have never even stung anyone before.'

The bees that attacked the horses have now been taken away and Sergeant Michael Keeler from Sussex Police said: 'I would like to stress that this was a freak accident.'

Beekeper Colin Turner said: 'Bees are at their most docile when they are swarming and there is very little danger of being stung if people take sensible precautions and avoid disturbing them.


source:dailymail