Why are bees special? We get inside a hive to find out
4/7/202613 min
In a new National Geographic docuseries, viewers get a look inside a bee hive. The series is called Secrets of the Bees — and since there’s nobody we know who loves bees more than entomologist Sammy Ramsey, we brought him on the show to share some of these secrets. We cover how bees play together (yes, play!), their ability to fend off predators four-times their size and a mite wreaking havoc on honeybees everywhere.
If you liked this episode check out past episodes on liquid gold (a.k.a honey), and honeybees.
Email us your questions about insects, critters – or anything else to do with science at shortwave@npr.org. We may turn it into an episode in the future!
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Emily Kwong· Host0:17
[gentle music] You're listening to Short Wave from NPR. Nobody I know loves bees or sings cover songs about them quite like Sammy Ramsey.
Sammy Ramsey· Guest0:30
[singing] I've got so much honey, the bees envy me. I got a sweeter song than the birds in the trees.
Emily Kwong· Host0:42
Sammy is an entomologist and a producer on the new National Geographic docuseries Secrets of the Bees. Everyone, I have never been so taken with bee footage in my life. I'm talking up-close video of bees living and working together and fending off predators like Vespa mandarinia, or the northern giant hornet.
Sammy Ramsey· Guest1:01
Those things are absolute tanks. They are units. To be able to have mouths that can chew through wood, stingers that are a quarter of an inch long, and the capacity to squirt venom out of their stinger while they're flying into your eyes is just wild.
Emily Kwong· Host1:17
And I asked Sammy to watch one key scene of the docuseries with me, where a murder hornet scopes out a hive filled with Asian honeybees. The hornet hovers menacingly, golden wings ablur.
Sammy Ramsey· Guest1:29
And