Honey hunting in the dead of night | Primal Survivor: Extreme African Survivor
I definitely would not want to fall from this height. We need to get to the hive out of the branches and lower it down. We're going to bring it down. We're going to lower it. This thing is heavy, yeah, I have it. Bees release pheromones when they're threatened, so Joseph uses smoke to disrupt their sense of smell and stop them from swarming. The bees are acting up, but the smoke is doing its job.
HAZEN: Ok, we have everything locked off up here. The hive is almost to the ground. Suspended. We've got the hive down but we're not going in for the honey just yet. The Okiek know that the bees are reluctant to fly at night, and are far more docile. So, for now, we must wait for the light to fade.
Now is the time. It's plenty dark enough now. It's not getting any darker than this. So, by firelight, we're going to dig right into that hive. They're really buzzing around in there. The kind of bees these are East African honeybees. A big hive like this can have 40,000 bees. Being stung in numbers can be fatal. If they swarm, the risk is very real.
There's a trap door on the bottom of this hive. They're blowing more and more smoke in there. Heart of the hive with the honey. There it is, that's it right there. That's what we're talking about. Those bees are angry now. They're starting to fly out. Ba-ba-ba-ba! Aye!
HAZEN: Ahhh right in the armpit, that's a bad one. The smoke is preventing a swarm, but some bees are still going in for the attack. When they crawl on you, they just sting whatever feels like skin. Ah! I've got one under my shirt, and I've already been stung about, I don't know, six or seven times, I don't know.
These guys are getting stung, too. They're working fast, trying to get the honeycomb. Oh. Oh, my gosh. Heavy with honey. And then those white parts, those are little baby honeybees, which isn't honey, but it is protein. Might seem like a lot of work to get honey, but think about it, there is nothing out here sweeter than honey.