James with Bee-beard
Aregua, Paraguay 1994
Brice Howard photo credit; James Patton -- subject
As a final 'rite of passage' for the Peace Corps Paraguay beekeepers,
we were all required to don the mythic beard of bees: once the sole dominion
of gurus and circus folk. Ten to 20,000 africanized bees are hung around
their caged queen for a few days, to replicate the swarm (a division of
the hive searching for a new home). Despite Hollywood's definition, the
swarm actually tends to make the bees lethargic and disrupt their ability
to raise an alarm signal. The queen is then tied (in her little screen
cage) around the chin and the bees follow her scent, festooning (hanging
from one another) from the face. (You will notice that some of them prefer
to explore the bellybutton).
© 2002 The
Fletcher School, Tufts University