To lighten up the weekend, we have 3 short and entertaining bee videos to share.
There are many things you'd expect to see at the beach, but a swarm of bees is not one of them. Imagine how surprised these sunbathers were on Steger Beach at Cape May, New Jersey when a young queen bee and her swarm arrived at the BEE-ach. They probably meant for it to be a short rest stop on their way to find a new beehive to call home. Luckily for these gentle bees, an equally gentle beekeeper showed up and rescued them.They now enjoy a new home with the kind beekeeper. Nobody got hurt, and many people got to see a beekeeping rescue play out live right before their eyes. Thank you, wonderful beekeeper!
This video by NJ.com is just 1:12-minutes long.
In this next video, bees do not have a great outcome, but the video shows the dance of life and the interplay between species. This 2:48-minute long BBC Earth video shows birds feeding on a haze of bees in the desert. Referred to as the "cactus bee gold rush" these birds protect their young by building their nests in cacti with sharp needles, and then they wait patiently to feast on bees. For just a few days, thousands of bees emerge from their burrows in the ground to partake in a mating frenzy. And while they are too busy to pay attention, they are plucked up as a rare delicacy by birds, lizards and other desert creatures.
The final video for this weekend takes us back to the BEE-ach but this time on the other side of the Atlantic Ocean. This 1:32-minute video by Golden Phoenix shows that even on the sands of Porthmeor, St. Ives, in Cornwall, England, where the weather isn't always warm and sunny, 10,000 bees swarmed onto the beach and landed on a family's tent. Many sunbathers were afraid of this odd occurrence, but lifeguards secured the area. Thanks to local beekeeper Mike Leverton the problem was short-lived. A former fire fighter, Mike suspected the queen must have been tired to have stopped with her swarm on the beach. First he collected half the bees into a box, and then the other half followed their queen, who was already inside. Mike then took the swarm to his property, where he keeps about 60 hives and a rich supply of Cornish honey. Happily these bees found a new home with a kind-hearted beekeeper and the beach-goers had a first-hand experience with bees they are unlikely to forget. Hopefully they were impressed by the lack of danger the bees presented as they saw the patient beekeeper handle them carefully and wisely.
We hope you enjoy these short videos we selected for your entertainment. Bee safe this weekend.
Have you ever been BEEside the seaside and had an experience with bees? We'd love you to share it over on our Facebook page!