ML139307
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Subject 1: (Sound Effects). Subtitle: Duct tape FX. Timecode In: 00:05:09. Timecode out: 00:05:11. Subject 2: (Interview). Subtitle: Stephen Buchmann. Timecode In: 00:16:36. Timecode out: 00:33:00. Notes: Africanized honey bee. Subject 3: African Honey Bee (Apis mellifera scutellata). Timecode In: 00:25:14. Timecode out: 00:33:21. Equipment Notes: Stereo=1; Decoded MS stereo. NPR/NGS RADIO EXPEDITIONS Bees DAT 3 present: Hayward Spangler, works at USDA Carl Hayden Bee Research Ctr., and Steve Buchman place: bee yard near Silver Bell, AZ -has bees that are largely Africanized 17:54 SB -See the bees flying in and out of the colonies, but we don't have any that are trying to attack us yet. 18:06 SB -Ok. there's our first bee coming around inspecting us. there are some big, ominous dark clouds fairly close. so that is not a good thing for working with Africanized bees. 19:57 SB -We are in the upland -actually the upper Bhata, the slopes coming out of the mountains here, and we are surrounded by beautiful green dessert. We have Palaverte trees, the giant columnar cacti, the state flower of AZ the saquaro, we also have the waving arms of Ocatios, lots of cacti in this area. We are going inside the chain linked fence with some barb wire ....we have about probably 15 to 20 colonies of Africanized bees, our worst meanest bees, that is why we have put them out way out away from anyone in the city. Ok we are going through the gate .... 21:37 SB -Their flight behavior is quite different than European bees, very very spooky erratic 22:13 ambi -bees, getting louder 22:39 SB -I've got 2 or 3 guard bees now starting to circle around my head, so we are staring to get their attention. 24:07 SB tapping the hives with a rock to get the bees to come out 24:16 SB -the bees are boiling out the bottom part of the hive is black with them now. I've got about 30 bees trying to sting my veil [bees very loud!] 24:32 Smell that banana. it is venom spraying into my face from the bees. this is really bad. this is as bad as I have experienced in [VG bee ambi] Costa Rica and Panama. It is really nasty. VG 24:46 -24:47 bee ambi 24:48 SB -I hope we don't have any holes. this is really a good full force attack. they are still boiling out the front of the colony. each of us -well i've got about at least 100 bees on the front of my veil trying to get in. yeah, each of us has at least a hundred bees or 200 bees on the front of our veils. VG 25:13-25:19 bees attacking 25:19 SB -smell that alarm pheromone that scent of bananas as they hit our veil. I am breathing to the carbon dioxide, and my breath is really exciting them, increasing the attack. the bees are just probing trying to get in everywhere, but we are duct taped -oh god this is really unbelievable. i can barely see out of the front if my veil, there are so many bees. VG 25:49-26:02 bees 26:03 SB -the smell is really over powering it is like living ¬it is like what it must be like to live inside of a popcorn maker. the bees are hitting our helmets and our veils with such intensity. we are backing off now, we are probably about 35 feet from the hive, and we've still got hundreds and hundreds of hungry bees around our veils VG 26:25-26:33 bees 26:34 SB -Are we having fun yet? G 26:35-26:42 bees 26:45 SB -So far, no stings. 26:56-26:59 ambi -bees 27:00 SB -yeah, I wouldn't want to be out here w/o bee protection. we can laugh about it, but this is serious business. we would have each received at least 1000 stings w/o proper protection. After those 3 or 4 tapes with a rock on the colony, they were literally boiling out in probably 10 or 15 seconds, and by half a minute or so we had full blown attack going. Every time I exhale to talk, just got many many bees trying to bite and sting their way through the veil. aga... (Notes truncated)
Additional species
- African Honey Bee Apis mellifera scutellata
Technical information
- Recorder
- SONY TCD-D7
- Microphone
- Accessories
Archival information
- Cataloged
- 3 May 2005 - Ben Brotman
- Digitized
- 3 May 2005 - Ben Brotman
- Edited
- 3 May 2005 - Ben Brotman