A baby girl was not stung once while lying in her cot, staring with big eyes at 45,000 bees building a hive in the corner of her room.
Her father, who is allergic to bees, discovered the swarm when he went to check on his daughter who is a few months old and normally a “difficult” baby, reported Beeld newspaper on Wednesday.
He phoned a bee keeper of Akasia, north of Pretoria. “When I told him I didn’t work in Rustenburg, he said: ‘You don’t understand. My child is in a room full of bees.’,” said Pieter Saunders, 27.
“I grabbed my equipment and protective gear, jumped into my car and was in Rustenburg in less than an hour. In the meantime, the father had told me over the phone that he was allergic to bees’ poison and that his wife had never been stung. “They said the baby was lying under a mosquito net which they used to protect her while she slept.”
Saunders told them it would be safer to leave her in the cot than grabbing her and run from the room because that could aggravate the bees.
Upon his arrival, the bees had settled in a corner against the ceiling. “I sucked them up with my bee vacuum, and securely closed them in a holding cage. The parents were very grateful that the child, who is normally difficult, had not cried once.
“The bees are now going to make lovely honey for me,” added Saunders.
