# Do bees know their keeper?



## beemerry (Feb 27, 2009)

Do bees get to know their handler? I keep my bees close to buildings where I can easily inspect them as I go about farmwork. They will even land on me occasionally if I linger in their flight path. I seldom wear protective clothing when handling them and experience few stings. What do more experienced beeks say?


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## sqkcrk (Dec 10, 2005)

I believe that there are some studies on bees and facial recognition, but I don't know where to find them. They live such a short time and fly only part of that time and only encounter you even less, so i don't know how or why they would identify you as what(?), a friend? If you are not threatening to their home, then they will pretty much leave you alone and tolerate your presence. Otherwise, you look like a bear to them.

That's my take on it.


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## taxonomy (Apr 15, 2010)

No. They do not. It's nice to anthropomorphise our insect charges, but in the end it does a disservice to the incredible things they actually are.


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## JOHNYOGA2 (Sep 30, 2008)

My bees land on me sometimes, usually after I've been sweating. I think they're after the moisture more then interested in saying "Hi". Sorry, but I don't think they're especially interested in us.


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## Cedar Hill (Jan 27, 2009)

Have kept bees over fifty years and have come to the conclusion that bees do indeed recognize their owner provided he/she works them when needed. Don't know if it has to do with their identifying our personal pheremones or whatever but apparently this idea has been influential to a limited degree down through the ages with quite a number of cultures. Just do a computer search with the phrase "Tell the bees" and it will become evident. In the fifties draping the apiary with black crepe paper at the death of its beekeeper was still practiced in some European countries. Interesting topic! OMTCW


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## AmericasBeekeeper (Jan 24, 2010)

We have dosens even a hundred beekeepers at USF workshops. The bees figure out who will swat and who is a melittophile. An old wives tale said bees would go to the coffin of the beekeeper too. In analysis, they were getting rosin for propolis. Several bee behaviors go beyond what can be learned in a generation. That is why honeybees are a superorganism, outperforming individual traits and abilities. If you think bees recognize your pheremones or behavior, let the sceptics prove us wrong. Bees cannot scientifically do several things or we do not understand how yet.


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## mrspock (Feb 1, 2010)

I experienced something curious the other day. I was working a hive, no protection, hands in hive. No stings.

An observer 10 feet away got stung - He had no "triggers" such as smell or dark clothing. I couldn't account for it.

I've heard that some people's natural smells can be a factor, and suspect this to be true.


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## raosmun (Sep 10, 2009)

I do not know the answer. In away I think they do, but then once in awile one of the little devals will go out of its way to nail me or try to.
:scratch:


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## beemerry (Feb 27, 2009)

Interesting responses so far. Several experiences have made me wonder. Last fall I was feeding syrup on the deck railing and could have bees all land over my body while I refilled containers, yet I was never stung. Also, if the syrup was gone when I arrived in the yard bees would fly against my face when I opened the truck door, as if to beg for more. On a few occasions when another beekeeper was with me to examine hives he would be stung, but not myself. A few days ago I was checking a new hive for eggs in the top super without using smoke or wearing a suit and a beek friend who was nearby was stung but I was fine even though I was kneeling by the open hive, taking out the frames. All the animals(not insects) which I worked with through my farming lifetime developed a trust relationship with me so it would not surprise me if colonies of bees could do the same.


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## Mike Snodgrass (Mar 11, 2010)

During warm months they live 6 weeks...can they pass that bit to young bees, "Hey, dont sting him, hes the one that brings feed, but then he also dropped a hive tool yesterday and smashed benny, so your call!"...?????


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## bigbearomaha (Sep 3, 2009)

How long does it take for bees to fix the image and scent of their hive during orientation flights? The whole 6 to 8 weeks of their summer lives? I don't think so.

if bees might be able to detect scents that determine images based on short experience, say once every 4 weeks, I don't see why it couldn't bee that each bee, in it's short life might 'imprint' the scent/image of the specific person working the hive and relating interactions (lots of bees dying when that scent/image is present, little to no disruption when that scent/image is present, etc... ).

I think it is premature for us to dismiss their potential for using their senses to 'recognize' the beekeepers who are most present simply because they aren't people or think/interact as people do.

They may not be people or dogs or other 'higher' animals, but that doesn't automatically exclude the possibilities. It just may be their brains handle the same thing in a different way.

Big Bear


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## Omie (Nov 10, 2009)

Mike Snodgrass said:


> During warm months they live 6 weeks...can they pass that bit to young bees, "Hey, dont sting him, hes the one that brings feed, but then he also dropped a hive tool yesterday and smashed benny, so your call!"...?????


Benny...? lol!


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## mac (May 1, 2005)

Mike Snodgrass said:


> During warm months they live 6 weeks...can they pass that bit to young bees, "Hey, dont sting him, hes the one that brings feed, but then he also dropped a hive tool yesterday and smashed benny, so your call!"...?????


You killed Benny. You Bas-------


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## NasalSponge (Jul 22, 2008)

I also wonder how much of it may be an ability of the bees to sense fear?? This going back to the mountain of stories we have heard about a beek never getting stung while working a hive but the bees will fly across the yard to sting a friend, spouse, or neighbor. That type of behavior could be construed as the bees recognizing the beek. Don't get me wrong, I am NOT saying they don't...just throwing that out there for thought!


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## Mike Snodgrass (Mar 11, 2010)

LOL.....
I would absolutely love for my cat to walk up someday and say....Hey, you lazy son of a )*^$#...start buying the good food instead of this trash! Because 5 minutes after i got back from the grocery store and had a shot, we'd start talking about a whole lot more than cat food, like what does the wife really do when im at work, and??? I would also like to tell my kids that my Bees recognize me and like me!!!! Well, at least respect me, dont really care who likes me! I would love to read that dolphins and whales have been playing us for fools all these years and that Shamu said he just liked the way she tasted! The bottom line is that many of these creatures, created by the same fella who created us just dont have brains adapted for speech or even cognitive thought. They are purely in many ways instinctive. But i also do wish otherwise!


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## Cicada54701 (Jul 29, 2010)

I have a friend who's long dead uncle was a beekeeper when she was growing up. It sounds like he probably had all kinds of quirky little beekeeping superstitions/practices that very few if anyone would espouse today but, one of his things was, before he allowed her to help with his hives he made her sit in a chair in the midsts of his hives for 30 minutes each day for like a week so that the bees could "get used to her scent".

Now wether or not this was beneficial the bottom line is...the man felt a strong connection to his bees and he passed his respect for them onto my friend who recalls it all clearly to this day, "We can take this much honey...the rest we have to leave for the bees or they'll die". 

So maybe, in this type of instance, it doesn't much matter what the truth is?


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## Lauren (Jun 10, 2010)

I think that they do recognize their keepers probably by scent. Mine will come visit me in the yard and if I put my hand out an even half will take me up on it and land on me and visit for a while. I spend an unhealthy amount of time hanging out with the hive and watching the comings and goings. I think they know me.

This am I woke to find one on my (2nd story) bedroom window screen above my head~ that was weird. And yes, a coincidence!

Then again when I have a bad day going through the hive and crush a couple or drop the hive tool, I just think.... in 5-6 weeks none of them will remember that ! Thank goodness!


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## jgd (Oct 4, 2003)

IMHO-I feel it is the keeper that makes the difference. ie how the keeper reacts to the bees (this may be fear, contempt, or love) determins how the bees react to the keeper.

jd


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## NasalSponge (Jul 22, 2008)

Your in trouble now....use used the "K" word!!


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## waynesgarden (Jan 3, 2009)

Lauren said:


> Then again when I have a bad day going through the hive and crush a couple or drop the hive tool, I just think.... in 5-6 weeks none of them will remember that !


Who knows what gets written in the propolis?

Just sayin..

Wayne


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## plaztikjezuz (Apr 22, 2010)

JOHNYOGA2 said:


> My bees land on me sometimes, usually after I've been sweating. I think they're after the moisture more then interested in saying "Hi". Sorry, but I don't think they're especially interested in us.


i wear nitrile gloves and i got a little cut in the tip of my left index finger. i felt something weird on my finger and i looked there was a bee drinking my sweat through the slit. it felt strange, i swear i could feel her tongue on my skin.


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## plaztikjezuz (Apr 22, 2010)

Mike Snodgrass said:


> During warm months they live 6 weeks...can they pass that bit to young bees, "Hey, dont sting him, hes the one that brings feed, but then he also dropped a hive tool yesterday and smashed benny, so your call!"...?????


i thought bee's only had a 3 day memory. i guess i am getting this from pollen traps and how it takes bees 3 days to change there load size.


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## beemerry (Feb 27, 2009)

We need to remember that bees act as colonies and not as individual bees. They must constantly be making decisions with some means of comunicating to one another in the maintainance of the hive or else there would be hopeless chaos. Consequently, I doubt whether the short life of a bee would would be an issue in the recognition of a friendly or hostile scent.When upon occasion when I am working a hive they do decide that I have crossed the line of propriety and sting me it is usually a collective decision-then I might as well grab my suit because the whole lot seems inclined to reinforce their displeasure with me. Once in my first year I was followed to the house and coud not use the front door for an hour or so until they got tired of waiting for me to come out. A beek friend of mine told me that one hive of his bees had a grudge on him for several days after an attack episode.


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## cow pollinater (Dec 5, 2007)

In my experiance it is about a three or four day memory. I open feed and most of my bees are in areas that I walk through every day. I've noticed that when feeding season comes around I get lots of attention as I pretty much wear the same clothes every day... I get bees in my face just walking out to get the mail. My wife and kids can walk right in front of a hive without notice from the bees during the same timeframe.
I have also noticed that in one yard where I have to pump water for the cows everyday the bees are there waiting when I pull up in my work truck but on the rare occassion that I'm in the family truck it takes them a while to congregate for water.


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## dehavik (Jun 5, 2010)

The bees communicate with pheromones. I can't see any reason why they would not read ours to a certain extent, too.

I know that with two inspections, with identical weather and nectar flow, the one where I am mentally calm and unhurried goes better (less head-butting and 'angry buzzing') than when my mind is frenzied or fearful, even though my actions are the same and unhurried at both. 

Most complex animals can read moods and energies, why not bees?


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## beemerry (Feb 27, 2009)

It is interesting, cow pollinator, that you say your bees recognize your work truck. I know that animals (now maybe insects) have an uncanny ability to recognize their herdsman's vehicle - my tenants used to tell me that my calves on a property where they lived would know the sound of my vehicle when it was still on a busy highway and I had not yet turned into the farm lane and would start bawling.


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## sqkcrk (Dec 10, 2005)

Perhaps more importantly, do beekeepers know their bees?


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## Roland (Dec 14, 2008)

Know your bees?

The poor ones think they do, the good ones know they don't. 

I have a hive of bees on the back porch, so close that the door can swing open and hit it. It seems that they do acclimate themselves to us coming and going, stomping on the porch, etc. It seems you can do things to them that you can not do to the other hives.


Roland


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## Sambo (May 26, 2010)

I can answer that! Keepers know their bees definitely most of the time, normally, sometimes. Well, maybe not this morning for me.

Zipping along on the lawn mower, had not even got over to the hives yet, not paying attention to them and normally they don't pay attention to me. It would seem that SOMEBODY has a new flight line and forgot to inform me of the changes in take-offs and landings. I ran right into one coming in. You know how bugs splat when they hit the windshield? Well, that was my forehead this morning. If they had only told me, I wouldn't have run so fast through the pattern. 

The girls and I have a good relationship about the mower as long as I point the discharge away from them (me and the lawnmower make a slow pass about 6 inches from the front landing board). We share a hatred for the weedeater which is why I did some landscaping and mulching so we wouldn't have to get that nasty machine out. Today, was my fault for not looking before I went "full speed ahead". I went up after I finished mowing and apologized but they acted like they didn't hear me.


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## Mike Snodgrass (Mar 11, 2010)

" I went up after I finished mowing and apologized but they acted like they didn't hear me."

LOL....You dont say?


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## dehavik (Jun 5, 2010)

Better they ignore you than one alternative I can think of. A family blood-feud fueled by revenge, perhaps? Maybe they are plotting as you read this. Sleep well tonight.


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## dave28210 (Nov 10, 2008)

I dunno, could be a scent issue. My wife has never been in the hives, and the girls will land on her when she's outside like it's goin outta style. No issue. They don't dislike me by any means, but I have to be in a hive to get them on me


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## dave28210 (Nov 10, 2008)

oddly enough, come to think of it....mosquitoes land on her but don't bite. She's literally never been bitten. Or stung for that matter. Go figure


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## Connor (Jul 1, 2010)

Not that I have years of experience or anything but I spend alot of time very close to my hives' entrances and I have never been stung. They land on me very rarely one will get upset and fly into me, one even crawled into my ear once.

But let one of the neighbor's dogs (they think they live with me as well) or the stray cat who moved in and took over get within 3 foot of the hive entrance and the bees sting them.

Not sure what that means but it is somekind of recognition.


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## sparks2142 (May 26, 2010)

This is the kind of stuff that makes beekeeping so dang fascinating!! Thousands of years, and we still don't know why they do what they do!

Here's a study that was done : 

http://www.world-science.net/exclusives/051209_beesfrm.htm

But we all know that bees don't read


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## sqkcrk (Dec 10, 2005)

Connor said:


> Not sure what that means but it is somekind of recognition.


Sure, it means that your hive "recognizes" the cat and the dog as a threat and you as not so much a threat. It would be a stretch to say that they recognize you personally, though.


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## debcst5823 (Mar 12, 2014)

(3) "TELLING THE BEES."

"A Bedfordshire woman was telling me the other day," says a writer in a Northern daily paper, "how her son had been stung all over by bees. 'And no wonder,' she said, 'he never told them he was going to put them in a new 'ome, and everybody knows that before you goes to put bees in a new 'ome, you must knock three times on the top of the 'ive and tell 'em, same as you must tell 'em when anyone dies in the 'ouse. Ef you don't, they'll be spiteful, for bees is understanding creatures, an' knows what you say to them."

Yes, in secluded villages, among old people, the bee superstition still exists, but the modern apiarist will have none of it. To him it is a bit of poetry from out of the past. And it has some poetry in it; in fact it is one of the most picturesque of all rural superstitions, and some of them are neither picturesque nor decent. Whittier's "Telling the Bees" is so good a description of the idea that it is worth quoting in part:--

"Just the same as a month before,--
The house and the trees,
The barn's brown gable, the vine by the door,--
Nothing changed but the hives of bees.

Before them, under the garden wall,
Forward and back,
Went drearily singing the chore-girl small,
Draping each hive with a shred of black.

Trembling, I listened: The summer sun
Had the chill of snow;
For I knew she was telling the bees of one
Gone on the journey we all must go!

Then I said to myself, 'My Mary weeps
For the dead to-day;
Haply her blind old grandsire sleeps
The fret and the pain of his age away.'

But her dog whined low; on the doorway sill,
With his cane to his chin,
The old man sat; and the chore-girl still
Sung to the bees stealing out and in.

And the song she was singing ever since
In my ear sounds on:
'Stay at home, pretty bees, fly not hence!
Mistress Mary is dead and gone!'"

Brand does not mention "telling the bees," nor does Sir Henry Ellis, but the latter has some notes which apparently go further back than the origin of the "telling." In Molle's Living Libraries (1621) we read:--"Who would beleeve without superstition (if experience did not make it credible), that most commonly all the bees die in their hives, if the master or mistresse of the house chance to die, except the hives be presently removed into some other place? And yet I know this hath hapned to folke no way stained with superstition."

Here the bees are not to be told of a death in the house: they die themselves if the hives are not removed. In a later century they do not die, but the hives must be turned round.

I found the following in the "Argus," a London newspaper, Sept. 13, 1790; "A superstitious custom prevails at every funeral in Devonshire, of turning round the bee-hives that belonged to the deceased, if he had any, and that at the moment the corpse is carrying out of the house. At a funeral some time since, at Collumpton, of a rich old farmer, a laughable circumstance of this sort occurred: for, just as the corpse was placed in the hearse, and the horsemen, to a large number, were drawn up in order for the procession of the funeral, a person called out, 'Turn the bees,' when a servant who had no knowledge of such a custom, instead of turning the hives about, lifted them up, and then laid them down on their sides. The bees, thus hastily invaded, instantly attacked and fastened on the horses and their riders. It was in vain they galloped off, the bees as precipitately followed, and left their stings as marks of their indignation. A general confusion took place, attended with loss of hats, wigs, etc., and the corpse during the conflict was left unattended; nor was it till after a considerable time that the funeral attendants could be rallied, in order to proceed to the interment of their deceased friend."

If one must find a suitable source for all these varying ideas about bees and bee hives, it can only be in the mysteries surrounding the activities and habits of bees, now much better understood than they used to be; and in the manner in which signs of a religious nature were sought and found in daily phenomena. To the intelligence of the peasant a bee could not but provide marvels sufficient to win his respect, if not something more; for the bee worked industriously and cleverly on behalf of the peasant, and asked no wages. In other words, the peasant was a debtor to the bee, and his attitude was one of gratitude. Out of this feeling, no doubt, arose a sense of identity in interests--a fellow-feeling which prompted him to "tell the bees" of a death, and to turn the hive at a burial.

The religious element is seen in a letter, dated 1811, contributed to The Gentleman's Magazine. The writer says: "There is in this part of Yorkshire a custom which has been by the country-people more or less revived, ever since the alteration in the style and calendar: namely, the watching in the midnight of the new and old 'Xmas Eve by bee-hives, to determine upon the right 'Xmas from the humming noise which they suppose the bees will make when the birth of our Saviour took place. Disliking innovations, the utility of which they understand not, the oracle, they affirm, always prefers the most antient custom." This is a good instance of using bees as a means of divination, and when once a people start divining, a crowd of omens is sure to follow in their train.

The theory that when the bees in a farmer's hives die, he will soon be compelled to move from the farm, is easily accounted for by Mr Gibson. "A hive of bees rarely dies unless the season is so bad that it is disastrous to farming; consequently, where a farmer holds his farm on a yearly tenancy, it may follow that he will find it necessary to go elsewhere to build up his fortune."


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## Oldtimer (Jul 4, 2010)

An interesting read!


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## Brad Bee (Apr 15, 2013)

I had one recognize me on the palm of the hand, one recognized my forehead and two recognized my shoulder the other day.......

I do suspect that humans do emit chemical signals, pheremones, or whatever that all animals and possibly even many insects can detect. I have no fear at all of bees, even when my hands are in a hive. I rarely get stung when inspecting a hive. The other day when I got rushed and tried to pack up an angry hive, I got stung. My normally laid back mood had changed. 

I saw a man with my own two eyes walk up to a red wasps nest, rub his hand on his armpit, reach up grab the nest with wasps still on it, throw it on the ground and step on it. He didn't get a single sting. I guess the armpit smell covered up his other pheremones.


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## Dominic (Jul 12, 2013)

sqkcrk said:


> I believe that there are some studies on bees and facial recognition, but I don't know where to find them. They live such a short time and fly only part of that time and only encounter you even less, so i don't know how or why they would identify you as what(?), a friend? If you are not threatening to their home, then they will pretty much leave you alone and tolerate your presence. Otherwise, you look like a bear to them.
> 
> That's my take on it.


I think I read a study about wasps being able to recognize faces. I don't recall where either, but I do recall the authors claiming it could help develop better facial recognition programs. Not sure if it's applicable to bees.


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## kingd (Oct 31, 2013)

dave28210 said:


> I dunno, could be a scent issue. My wife has never been in the hives, and the girls will land on her when she's outside like it's goin outta style. No issue. They don't dislike me by any means, but I have to be in a hive to get them on me


 My mentor says that fabric softener sets his bees off, also I noticed at a couple of hives I was suited up and he had just a veil on 
and I was the one covered in bees.
He claims its because the suit (and me) are new.


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## beemerry (Feb 27, 2009)

Well, 3 1/2 years after I posted the original thread, on a mild day during our icy Ontario spring, a bee flew across the snowbanks to land on my hand as I exited my pickup truck by my house. After gently walking around my arm, it flew away. I had just been wondering if any bees had survived the winter. Happy reunion!


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## Vance G (Jan 6, 2011)

No They can't remember their home being moved longer than three days! They are bugs! Don't be silly. I love them but they don't love me. If I don't give them what they want. they leave.


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## dehavik (Jun 5, 2010)

I had a neat experience a few years ago.

In 2011, I met the family of the late Rosalee Oldham Wheeler, a woman beekeeper with ties and a house in our little community. Rosalee died just a few months before in her home in Arizona at 90 years old.

Her father had hives shipped to him in the late 1800s. They travelled around Cape Horn on a schooner and into San Francisco, where they were put on a barge for the remainder of the journey. Rosalee learned her trade from her father, and was a beekeeper for 70 years! 

I asked Rosalee's daughter if, after her mother died, she went to tell the bees of the loss of their keeper, so that they would not leave. Rosalee still had four nucs when she passed away. The daughter said that when she went back to her mother's house a while after her death, the bees had all left. The nucs were empty.

Myth? I'm beginning to wonder. Don't forget to tell the bees.


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## Phoebee (Jan 29, 2014)

I've been stung on the lower lip and on the chin, within an inch or so of the same spot, by one species of small hornet. Each time they make, well, a beeline for their target from a considerable distance. The first time it was from well over a hundred feet away. No buzzing around, just straight at me and then stinger-first into my chinny-chin-chin.

I have an Abe-Lincoln beard. It looks a little like a pattern on some flowers that I'm told is interpreted by some pollinators as a potential mate. It is entirely likely that these hornets see my beard as a rival species. They may not recognize my face, but I may mimic a natural pattern they DO recognize.


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## sqkcrk (Dec 10, 2005)

Yes, and they remember how you treated them the last time.


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