Lindsey's Beard of Bees Blue Peter Bite

This is Blue Peter, but mini.

Expect epic adventures, makes, bakes, badges, pets,

presenters and your post.

We've only got five minutes, so get ready for your Blue Peter adventure.

Welcome to Quince Honey Farm in Devon,

home to almost 100 million bees.

And normally, those bees are in hives, making honey.

Sweet little bees.

Except today, they're going to be on my face.

I'm attempting an ancient tradition called the beard of bees -

a practice that dates way back to the early 1800s

and involves having potentially thousands of bees on my face.

It's a challenge with a history on Blue Peter

and was last attempted by Helen in 2009.

But after 20 minutes of having the bees crawling on her,

they eventually lost patience.

Oh! Stung me - stung me on my face.

-Yeah, she's got a sting in the face.

-Oh.

-OK.

And now I want to see if I can go one better and complete the beard.

But before I attempted the challenge,

I wanted to find out a bit more about the bees themselves.

This is Ian - he's a honey farmer and looks after all the hives here.

-Ian, how are you doing?

-Good, thanks, how are you doing?

Well, I'm OK. I'm a little bit nervous being around all these bees.

What exactly are you looking out for?

Checking the health of the colony, just seeing what's happening inside.

They're kind of sticking their heads in. What are these guys doing?

Those ones are feeding, so in those cells,

there's actually honey and they are having some of it to eat.

Central to my challenge today is the queen bee,

and she is vital to any bee colony.

The queen is usually the mother

to most, if not all, the bees in the hive.

-Is that her? Number 44?

-That's it, you've got it.

-OK.

Why do you choose her to be the queen?

-Who makes that decision?

-The bees make that decision.

-OK.

-Yeah. So, when the colony needs to change the queen,

it's the worker bees that will decide.

So, they'll take an egg laid by the original queen

and they treat it differently...

SHE GASPS Sorry!

And that's what changes it either into a worker bee

or into a queen bee.

I am nervous for later, though,

but at least we've got these massive suits on.

Well, yeah, but you won't have later.

Yeah, you heard that right.

No more bee suit for me.

But how do I get the bees on my face?

So, we take the queen bee, who is already in a cage,

and then we are going to transfer her onto your chin.

She emits a pheromone, a smell,

and the other bees want to be near her,

and they've been separated from their queen for about an hour,

so now they're really pleased to see her

and they'll just follow her, wherever she goes.

OK, so, what's next?

-Let's go and meet the bees.

-Oh...

-Oh, there's one, there's one.

-Follow that one.

I'm working with experts and have a medic nearby.

Do not try this at home.

The first thing I need to do is get used to the feel of the bees.

Oh... Ah...

Ian wants me to touch the bees with my hand...

Oh, I'm shaking so much!

..so I can get used to the feeling of them on my skin.

-That's it. Good.

-OK.

Right - let's do this.

Just want you to put your chin over here, like this.

-Oh, OK, OK, OK.

-Move forwards.

At first, I can barely bring myself to touch the bees with my chin.

SHE HUMS NERVOUSLY

This is a truly bizarre and nerve-racking experience.

-Uh...

-That's backwards.

-I know, I know.

I can't even open my mouth to speak.

-Mm!

-It's all right, that was a bee's leg, gripping onto your chin.

-OK.

What we'll do now, we'll take the queen bee away from the cluster

and we're going to position her under your chin.

-OK?

-OK, yeah.

-All right.

-Yeah.

-Let's go for it.

Let's do it, let's do it, let's do it.

I have never done something more for the badge.

SHE GASPS

You might have one or two land on your face now.

-It's a good time to keep calm.

-It's on my hand.

Argh!

Ian takes the queen and ties her around my chin.

This is really going to start to feel uncomfortable,

but you're handling it really well.

We top up and we attract more bees by you leaning forwards.

As the bees start coming across onto my face,

I'm feeling more and more uneasy.

Forwards.

You're doing really good, really well.

I need to keep as calm and still as possible,

but that's easier said than done

when you have bees crawling on your face.

It's so hard not to flinch.

But just when I think things are starting to go well...

Ow, ow, ow!

..I've been stung.

Once one bee has stung, it sends a signal to all the others

that they're in danger, and then I'm stung for a second time.

SHE GROANS

Oh, I don't want to get stung!

Ian steps in to call it off.

It wasn't to be for me today, and for mine and the bees' safety,

the challenge was brought to a halt.

But it's not all bad news.

How many did I get on? Like, ten?

-No, no, there was a few hundred there.

-Really?

Yeah. But as soon as you got the sting on the forehead...

Ow, ow!

I know, I panicked. And then it stung my lip.

-Yeah...

-Which I can feel is getting bigger and bigger.

-You did come away with a goatee.

-Did I?

Yeah, yeah.

So impressed, so impressed with that.

Ow - it hurts to smile!

You know what? Standing here now, at the end of today's challenge,

I am proud, because I was very, very nervous,

and I managed to face my fear, quite literally put my face

into a load of bees, which I was scared of.

So, at least I'm not afraid of bees any more.

BUZZING Whoa!

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