An angry couple are suing beekeepers for EUR 10,000 over brown poo from their 25,000 bees which they say has ruined the home’s white walls and white Mercedes.
The pair told the judge at Chemnitz Regional Court, in the German state of Saxony, that they could not even hang a white bed sheet on their washing line without it being targeted by the bees.
The white walls of their home and even their white Mercedes are also frequently divebombed by the bees as they leave their hives covering them in yellow-brown dots of insect poo.
One expert explained that bees prefer to defecate on shiny or white surfaces.
At a hearing on 4th March Judge Matthias Ries-Wolff, 61, asked the couple and the beekeepers to come to a compromise agreement before he is forced to make a ruling.
But he said: “That’s nature. There are things in nature that you have to accept.”
The plaintiffs, not named in local media, claimed that white fabric awnings and their house facade had been badly stained by the poop.
But they admitted their Mercedes was cleaned by taking it to a car wash and the judge said that the poo could easily be wiped away with a rag.
As compensation, the judge suggested, the beekeeper could give her neighbours a jar of honey, saying: “But that is not to be expected given the value in dispute.”
The judge has given both parties until May to find an agreement or he will make a ruling.
Local bee expert Bianca Belusa, 50, explained that during winter, in the hive, bees collect all their faeces in their abdomens.
She told local media: “At around 10 degrees, the honey bees fly outside and begin their cleaning flight.
“That means they empty their faecal bladder. The bees prefer white places when they go to the toilet.”
