ViralHogBees are honestly such fascinating, jaunty little chaps and I for one love learning new facts about them and their life in the hive.
However, I don’t think I have ever considered petting a bee; no matter how fluffy it might look.
The possibility of a nasty sting on the nose aside, I think I would be concerned about giving the stripy little rascal a fright.
It seems however that interacting with a bee can be done, with footage buzzing around the web of a man feeding and high fiving a bee as if it were his absolute bestie.
The footage shows the man lowering his hand to the flower where the bee is chilling, holding a little honey in his palm. The bee clambers aboard, apparently sensing he can trust this huge new dessert-bringer.
As the bee latches on tightly to the man’s palm, he begins to suckle at the honey hungrily, lapping up the tasty treat with his mouthparts.
In the video, the man can be heard stating:
Flew from a flower to my hand. That easy.
After the bee had wholeheartedly indulged his sweet tooth, the man gently lowers his finger to pet him; brushing his fingertip carefully against the bee’s leg in an adorable high five (or indeed a high six as he aptly describes it).
The man even touches his fingertip against the bee’s back, petting him as if he were the world’s teensiest cat. He advises viewers to do this, ‘nice and soft’.
After spending a little time getting acquainted with the man, the pollen loving pal buzzes off to flowers new.
According to the bee whisperer himself:
I interrupted a bumble bee while it was collecting nectar to show how easy it is to pet and high five a bee. I’d call it more of a high six because of the sixth leg.
This is a smaller European drone bumble bee on a nectar gathering task from the queen. I wanted to show how easily it was to attract the interest of a bumblebee using honey.
Bumblebees don’t make honey but gather pollen for their young and collect nectar for food for themselves.
I thought it would be interesting to test whether bumblebees would like bees honey over nectar. I found out they do, but it is not really good for them because of the added enzymes honey bees add to nectar to make honey.
Those who have watched the footage have been throughly charmed by the encounter, describing the bee as bee-ing ‘sweet and fluffy’ with ‘such nice fur’.
One imaginative person said:
If bumble bees were the size of cats, and could function (Given the laws of gravity and exo skeletons with increasing volume and mass, etc) I would have one as a pet.
Because … Come on. Everyones walking their pet dog. And I’m like ‘This is Hoborg. He is my pet bumble bee.’ And I’d have him on a lil leash and everything. It’d be awesome.
And it would, by proxy , make just about everyone I know sh*t their pants.
Another bee-liever commented:
Wow bees are so cute and precious. (I believe I adore them a bit too much).
ViralHogCould this unlikely friendship between man and insect inspire the world’s fuzz-iest, buzz-iest petting zoo? We can only dream…
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Jules studied English Literature with Creative Writing at Lancaster University before earning her masters in International Relations at Leiden University in The Netherlands (Hoi!). She then trained as a journalist through News Associates in Manchester. Jules has previously worked as a mental health blogger, copywriter and freelancer for various publications.