back in the hive those bees too young to
forage our housekeeping like the Hornet
queen the queen bee has the immeasurable
task of laying enough eggs to ensure the
health and future of the colony
the custom of keeping wild japanese bees
is as old as society itself and
Yamaguchi has kept bees since boyhood
Japanese bees are so sensitive that it
takes great patience and skill to keep
them the art of keeping them lies in
understanding their behavior they make
honey stores for the winter but they
also produce enough for Yamaguchi to
harvest Japanese bees may produce less
honey than European bees but the taste
is very special it’s the smell of this
growing store of energy rich honey which
could be their downfall if it draws in a
hornet Scout but right now the Hornets
have other problems to contend with the
nest is now monstrous the workers have
excavated over a ton of Earth
there are so many bodies living at close
quarters that the Queen and her dynasty
are in danger of overheating so workers
create our conditioning keeping a steady
flow of fresh air circulating being
unable to cope with high temperatures is
a giant hornets Achilles heel the warmth
of the hornet’s nest belies the change
in season seasons change fast up here in
the mountains and when autumn arrives
there are far fewer insects around this
means my hives are even more vulnerable
to attack for me it’s an anxious time
in the search for autumnal food a scout
Hornet discovers Yamaguchi’s wild bees
the honeybees fan an alarmed pheromone
through the air this alerts the whole
hive to the Hornets presence
the Scout smells the honey within a
prize this rich is worth Sint marking
but unlike the European bees these
Japanese bees do not attack instead they
lure the Scout inside
still the bees hang fire
then one is caught it’s the signal the
others have been waiting for
[Music]
surrounded by vibrating bodies the
Hornet at the core of the bball begins
to overheat the bees have the advantage
a heat tolerance to degrees above that
of their enemy at 46 degrees Celsius the
aggressor is roasted and I
[Music]
the wild bees have spent millions of
years living with the enemy that’s why
they alone have developed this
extraordinary survival strategy
[Music]
