iqoniq
Prominent Member
Many moons ago my parents had some bees setup a nest in their bedroom. Long story short, I was meant to be watching the house, but gave my sister the keys because I was out at the weekend and she opened their bedroom window on the Friday to air the room a bit, forgot about it and when she went back on Monday it was bee central. Surprisingly, my parents weren't fazed at all, and they just carried on regardless and probably because they didn't bother the bees, they didn't bother my parents, and on odd occasions they'd even land on my parents around the house and just chill (while everyone else is thinking they've lost the plot and are staying as far away as possible).
Around 2007, I moved into a house that had beehives nearby, and the bees used to do the same, and I discovered they seemed to like being gently stroked. While I hate wasps and hornets who'll just sting you for the fun of it, I know with bees it's a last resort defence mechanism and they'll act altruistically for the sake of the colony. They weren't at all aggressive with me*, and I'm usually of the view that I prefer to let all things live than kill them because they're an occasional nuisance (at the end of the day they're just doing what they need to do and don't mean to annoy me).
On YouTube I've just seen this ( ) and I'm wondering how the girl does unprotected contact. I spoke to a beekeeper years ago, and he said around bees protection is essential because they can go absolutely nova if one assumes the colony is under attack and the rest will join in as well.
What I want to know is, given that the woman is introducing herself to a strange bee colony completely unprotected why aren't they swarming and trying to see off the threat? She does wear some face protection at one point in the video, but for the large part she's completely uncovered. Also, can you become immune to bee venom so you don't feel it as much or at all? It just amazes me how she's handling them and they're just like "Yeah, cool!" as opposed to getting defensive.
I'm not planning on bothering bees anytime soon, but I'd love to know.
* - That place was like a wildlife reserve. I had a huge garden (it went around the side and you could have built 3-5 houses on it complete with their own gardens as well), with loads of insects, arachnids and other creatures that shouldn't have got on with one another, but did. I remember watching some ants on a forage, and a spider colony that shared the decking where they lived didn't seem to be bothered at all (one got caught up in a web and the spider actually freed it as opposed to killing it). I don't know whether they all managed to come to some sort of equilibrium, or were just so used to the others that they viewed them as part of an extended family or something. If there was one place I could move back to, it would be there.
Around 2007, I moved into a house that had beehives nearby, and the bees used to do the same, and I discovered they seemed to like being gently stroked. While I hate wasps and hornets who'll just sting you for the fun of it, I know with bees it's a last resort defence mechanism and they'll act altruistically for the sake of the colony. They weren't at all aggressive with me*, and I'm usually of the view that I prefer to let all things live than kill them because they're an occasional nuisance (at the end of the day they're just doing what they need to do and don't mean to annoy me).
On YouTube I've just seen this ( ) and I'm wondering how the girl does unprotected contact. I spoke to a beekeeper years ago, and he said around bees protection is essential because they can go absolutely nova if one assumes the colony is under attack and the rest will join in as well.
What I want to know is, given that the woman is introducing herself to a strange bee colony completely unprotected why aren't they swarming and trying to see off the threat? She does wear some face protection at one point in the video, but for the large part she's completely uncovered. Also, can you become immune to bee venom so you don't feel it as much or at all? It just amazes me how she's handling them and they're just like "Yeah, cool!" as opposed to getting defensive.
I'm not planning on bothering bees anytime soon, but I'd love to know.
* - That place was like a wildlife reserve. I had a huge garden (it went around the side and you could have built 3-5 houses on it complete with their own gardens as well), with loads of insects, arachnids and other creatures that shouldn't have got on with one another, but did. I remember watching some ants on a forage, and a spider colony that shared the decking where they lived didn't seem to be bothered at all (one got caught up in a web and the spider actually freed it as opposed to killing it). I don't know whether they all managed to come to some sort of equilibrium, or were just so used to the others that they viewed them as part of an extended family or something. If there was one place I could move back to, it would be there.