Maury County family recovering after tornado harms bee farm
SPRING HILL, Tenn. (WKRN) — A Maury County farm is recovering after last week’s EF3 tornado ripped through their farm, destroying several bee hives.
The owners of Sweeney Hill Farm host classes on beekeeping and inform people on the best ways to catch swarms. They told News 2 they feel blessed to have all their animals and house still standing, but they said they may have lost a queen bee or two.
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The Sweeney family of four had all been out doing separate things when the tornado started heading their way. They were all able to make it back home and to their crawl space seven minutes before the tornado hit. When it did, they said all they heard was a whistling sound.
“The next thing I know, on my right side I hear whistling, and I feel rumbling,” Cora Sweeney, daughter to Ginnie Sweeney, said. “At that moment, I felt words flashed through my mind like, ‘We’re done for.’ That’s we’re done. It was terrifying.”
The family came out to find their house still standing, but several bee hives had been tipped over with the lid lifted, damaging them.
“I am going to give them at least a week before I go into there, maybe two,” Ginnie Sweeney, Owner of Sweeney Hill Farm, explained. “One of them had a brand new queen that hadn’t yet gone off and gotten mated and come back from her mating flight, so I am hoping I should know by the 20th whether or not she is still alive and got mated.”
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Also impacted were 16 queen bee cells, which depend on the temperature being 82 degrees, but the power was out and the boxed hives were disturbed.
“They spent the evening in our Prius plugged up to the cigarette lighter to stay warm,” Ginnie described. “I have in the past had very good luck with this incubator, keeping queen cells alive until I get them in hives. I did get nine of them into hives Thursday afternoon after we had a morning of cleanup, but I had to put the rest of them in a cell or in any hives. I guess it was Friday and Saturday. So we’ll see.”
“It’s not fun when bees die,” Cora said. “Especially for mom, and if they do, it is just kind of devastating.”
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Now the family is waiting to see if the queen bees survive. However, the family said the community supported them immediately following the tornado.
“They don’t call Tennessee the Volunteer State for nothing,” Ginnie said. “Like I said, 12 people were out here within an hour of everything happening, and our driveway was cleared of three large trees before dark Wednesday night.”
The Sweeney family told News 2 that they are focused on supporting and helping their harder-hit neighbors rebuild.
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