Beekeeper Rescues A Swarm Of Bees With Her Bare Hands And Gives Them A New Queen Bee, Goes Viral With 13.5M Views
Bees have been getting quite a lot of attention lately as this time of the year means National Bee Day. It all started with a mesmerizing photoshoot of Angelina Jolie covered in bees for the cover of National Geographic as a homage to Richard Avedon, and raising awareness of these vital insects in our world.
As many eyes were on bees already, this video emerging from the depths of TikTok showing a professional beekeeper scooping handfuls of insects into their new home went absolutely viral with 13.5m views and counting. People online are indeed loving the fearless beekeeper, Erika Thompson from Texas Beeworks, just casually handling the swarm and sharing some really cool facts about them.
More info: TikTok
Erika Thompson, a professional beekeeper, was called to remove a swarm of bees from under an umbrella
Image credits: texasbeeworks
Erika, who is the founder of Texas Beeworks, which is based in Austin, Texas, embarked on a mission to preserve, protect, and increase bee populations throughout the state. She was called to remove a swarm of bees that settled under an umbrella. Erika explains that “when bees are in swarms like this, they are looking for a new place to live,” in the meantime just casually dipping her hand into the live ball of insects.
And she actually moved them handful by handful with her bare hands
Image credits: texasbeeworks
According to Erika, the bees are actually very passive as they have nothing that they would want to protect, such as food, a hive, or baby bees, but they should have a queen bee. With each handful of bees the beekeeper was taking off the umbrella, she was trying to spot the queen bee. Erika carried on scooping the bees onto the box she brought, but had no luck in finding the queen bee even when she was nearly done.
These bees were harmless as they had nothing that they needed to protect
Image credits: texasbeeworks
Erika was looking for the queen bee with each scoop of live insects she moved, but no luck
Image credits: texasbeeworks
Turns out, this was quite a rare case of a queen-less swarm. Erika pointed out that the colony would not be able to survive without a queen and luckily she had an extra queen bee on her and was able to give it to her rescued bunch. And the bees, as excited as bees could probably bee, were rushing to meet the new queen. Erika explained that if the bees don’t approve of the new queen, they simply kill her, but this turned out not to be the case.
But as any ninja beekeeper probably would, Erika had a spare queen in her pocket
Image credits: texasbeeworks
The bee colony has to accept the new queen or else they try to kill her
Image credits: texasbeeworks
The queen bee is kept in a box closed with a candy which the bees chew through
Image credits: texasbeeworks
The box that the queen bee is kept in has one of its ends stopped by a piece of candy. If the bees approve of the new queen, they ‘save’ her by eating through the candy and joining her with the rest of the colony. As soon as everyone had met the new big momma, the bees started sending a signal to the remaining bees and calling them to move to the new spot so Erika just watched them move by themselves to their new home.
Image credits: texasbeeworks
Once the majority of the colony has moved, the rest of the bees get into the new hive by themselves
Image credits: texasbeeworks
Erika took the bees to their new home where they are safe and protected
Image credits: texasbeeworks
The video finishes with Erika checking if the queen bee had been accepted by the rest of the colony. Once all of the bees had finally moved inside the new hive, the fearless beekeeper took them to her apiary “so that the bees can continue to do the important work they do in a place that’s safer for them and for people.”
Image credits: texasbeeworks
Here is the whole video of Erika’s adventure of rescuing the swarm of bees
@texasbeeworks##bees ##nature ##summer ##tiktok ##fyp♬ original sound – Erika Thompson
Video credits: texasbeeworks
And here are the comments that were ranging from funny to hilarious, but definitely spot-on
20Kviews
Share on Facebook
Well, she's a beekeeper. It's her job. If a plumber turned up and had a wrench, would you be surprised? She was prepared, that's all.
Load More Replies...
She had a queen bee in her pocket. I don't dare to imagine what might be in her purse
This is amazing, like, she just had a queen on her. How does one just have an extra queen? because where did this queen come from? What happened to their queen? So many questions.
You can buy them. There are queen breeders that raise queens for when a hive loses a queen or you split a hive to make a new colony. They send them in the mail.
Load More Replies...
As a beekeeper it is quite an awesome experience catching swarms. Once you get the queen in the box they just go in on their own. They go to the queen by smell of the pheromone which smells like lemon grass.
This woman is amazing. My son and I keep bees in our backyard, and I have to completely suit up to go and inspect them. They're fairly docile (the kids can play in the yard right next to the hive without being stung), but I had an experience when there was a slight tear in my veil, and about 6 bees got in there. Once one bee stings, she releases pheromones that tell all of the other bees to sting. Removing a bee suit is kind of a process - I ran out to the front yard, followed by MANY bees, and had my son spray me with the hose while I took it off. My wife and I had to absolutely DASH to the car so she could take me to the emergency room, as I was losing the ability to breathe, and the bees were still very angry. I now have a couple epipens, and a new, full-body suit. Here's a picture of me in the hospital. 20200809_1...0cfdd6.jpg 
Just FYI, swarms like this are docile. I know she mentions that in her video, but not everybody watches the video. If you ever come across bees in the wild like this, you don't have much to worry about if you're gentle with them or are just near them. They have no hive to protect and are just searching for a new home.
I follow her on TikTok, the majority of her videos are like this. She's a really lovely person so I'm glad she's getting some well deserved attention
There are a lot of bee removal specialists on Twitter not happy with this woman. They are saying that the way she handles the bees is very dangerous and that her method can kill people. Do your own research on this but be aware that her peers aren't all pleased with what she does.
omg i saw this. what she's doing sets a dangerous precedent for people, especially the fact that she's wearing her hair down and the bees could get caught in her hair and become very distressed :((
Load More Replies...
This made me all happy. My father was a bee charmer. I’ve grown up loving bees. Did you know they used to be holy?
Omg! I know little to nothing about bees or beekeeping, so this is fascinating and strange to me! Also, is it just me, or is her hair just stunning? :0 and she just always keeps a queen bee in her pocket?! XD
Bee's arent as dangerous as people think. you will encounter tens of thousands of bees perhaps even millions of bees in your lifetime and chances are you will not get stung.
We hired a guy to get rid of a wasps nest in our garden. In all of his years removing bees/wasps, he has never once been stung. I, on the other hand, avoid bees/wasps at all costs, and I've been stung twice lol.
Load More Replies...
I'm an amateur bee keeper. I occasionally buy a queen to add to a hive. Professional bee keepers typically will have some caged queens on hand - often one of their hives will need to be split or re-queened.
Doing her huge part to save the earth , and all of our food sources! She, is the QUEEN BEE!!
Was just wondering- was there any reason she didn't wear protective gear?
They pretty much have food with them. This is rather the reason why they tend to be rather inert.
I'm imagining her pockets are somewhat like Jim Carrey's in Ths Mask.
Spare queen bee, haha... she's amazing! A beautiful, smart and kind woman doing beautiful and important work.
Well, she's a beekeeper. It's her job. If a plumber turned up and had a wrench, would you be surprised? She was prepared, that's all.
Load More Replies... She had a queen bee in her pocket. I don't dare to imagine what might be in her purse
This is amazing, like, she just had a queen on her. How does one just have an extra queen? because where did this queen come from? What happened to their queen? So many questions.
You can buy them. There are queen breeders that raise queens for when a hive loses a queen or you split a hive to make a new colony. They send them in the mail.
Load More Replies... As a beekeeper it is quite an awesome experience catching swarms. Once you get the queen in the box they just go in on their own. They go to the queen by smell of the pheromone which smells like lemon grass.
This woman is amazing. My son and I keep bees in our backyard, and I have to completely suit up to go and inspect them. They're fairly docile (the kids can play in the yard right next to the hive without being stung), but I had an experience when there was a slight tear in my veil, and about 6 bees got in there. Once one bee stings, she releases pheromones that tell all of the other bees to sting. Removing a bee suit is kind of a process - I ran out to the front yard, followed by MANY bees, and had my son spray me with the hose while I took it off. My wife and I had to absolutely DASH to the car so she could take me to the emergency room, as I was losing the ability to breathe, and the bees were still very angry. I now have a couple epipens, and a new, full-body suit. Here's a picture of me in the hospital. 20200809_1...0cfdd6.jpg
Just FYI, swarms like this are docile. I know she mentions that in her video, but not everybody watches the video. If you ever come across bees in the wild like this, you don't have much to worry about if you're gentle with them or are just near them. They have no hive to protect and are just searching for a new home.
I follow her on TikTok, the majority of her videos are like this. She's a really lovely person so I'm glad she's getting some well deserved attention
There are a lot of bee removal specialists on Twitter not happy with this woman. They are saying that the way she handles the bees is very dangerous and that her method can kill people. Do your own research on this but be aware that her peers aren't all pleased with what she does.
omg i saw this. what she's doing sets a dangerous precedent for people, especially the fact that she's wearing her hair down and the bees could get caught in her hair and become very distressed :((
Load More Replies... This made me all happy. My father was a bee charmer. I’ve grown up loving bees. Did you know they used to be holy?
Omg! I know little to nothing about bees or beekeeping, so this is fascinating and strange to me! Also, is it just me, or is her hair just stunning? :0 and she just always keeps a queen bee in her pocket?! XD
Bee's arent as dangerous as people think. you will encounter tens of thousands of bees perhaps even millions of bees in your lifetime and chances are you will not get stung.
We hired a guy to get rid of a wasps nest in our garden. In all of his years removing bees/wasps, he has never once been stung. I, on the other hand, avoid bees/wasps at all costs, and I've been stung twice lol.
Load More Replies... I'm an amateur bee keeper. I occasionally buy a queen to add to a hive. Professional bee keepers typically will have some caged queens on hand - often one of their hives will need to be split or re-queened.
Doing her huge part to save the earth , and all of our food sources! She, is the QUEEN BEE!!
Was just wondering- was there any reason she didn't wear protective gear?
They pretty much have food with them. This is rather the reason why they tend to be rather inert.
I'm imagining her pockets are somewhat like Jim Carrey's in Ths Mask.
Spare queen bee, haha... she's amazing! A beautiful, smart and kind woman doing beautiful and important work.
265
44