A muzzle of bees

Way back in June, when I was in the back of a car crawling through north Dublin traffic to get to Croke Park to see U2 we heard an amusing piece on the radio. It was an interview with an Irish bee keeper. He wanted to break the world record for the most number of bees the body at one time. The current record is held by an American who managed 87.5lb (40kg), or 350,000 bees on his body.

The Irishman was growing a beard in which to place a queen bee, in the hope that it would attract 350,001 other bees. He was embarking on this incredible stunt for charity, but he must have got quite a kick from it.

When asked if he was worried about getting stung he said 'ah no, sure one sting is just as bad as the other'. As it happens I stumbled across a photograph of the record attempt the other day. It turns out that he had to stop at 200,000 bees because of numb feet. No bee stung him during the record attempt, but once he jumped off the scales, seven bees became a little over excited and released their venom.

Enjoy the photos, the sheer madness of it enlightened our traffic jam experience.