- [Coyote] I am getting nervous now.
- [Chris] No turning back now buddy.
- [Cameraman] You alright?
- I'm getting stung a lot.
Alright, gotta get 'em off.
- [Chris] Go ahead and just jump.
Real hard.
- They're all on my face.
My eyes!
- [Narrator] From high in the sky, the Sonoran Desert
looks like an endless expanse of rocky terrain
that is speckled with cacti.
Hidden amongst this unforgiving environment
exists a world of animals,
many of which can be difficult to spot.
However, today is going to be a little different,
as instead of looking for the animals,
they're literally going to be placed right in front of us.
Or in my case, directly on my skin.
- That's a lot of bees.
- [Narrator] With the goal to prove that honey bees
are not just out to sting you, or so I thought.
The crew and I headed out to Life's Sweet Honey Farms
where I will be working alongside
bee specialist, Chris Britton.
Chris and his team specialize in safely removing
bee swarms from residential areas,
honey farming, and per my special request, bee beards.
- [Chris] This the craziest thing
you've done this morning, Coyote?
- [Coyote] Sure is. Other than shave off my fur beard.
- [Narrator] Ah yes, the beard.
I'm sure you were wondering,
Coyote, what in the world happened to your fur beard?
Well, the answer to that question
is that I shaved it off to make room
for the nearly 3,000 European honey bees
that will soon be swarming all over my face.
Get ready for the newest trend
in facial hair fashion, the bee beard.
The following scene was filmed on private property
and under the supervision of bee specialists.
A single sting has the potential to be fatal.
Never approach a bee hive in the wild.
- Okay well, we're gonna start the preparation here.
Chris is actually going to apply Vaseline,
you said to my nose, and my ears, and near my eyes,
so that the bees don't go
into these holes in my face, right?
- Well, you're either gonna look homeless with a beard
or we're gonna look like a nice manicured beard.
So this is a pseudo-queen.
This is basically a queen pheromone lure.
So this is what's going to push those bees
to actually gather somewhere
because they're actually looking for that queen pheromone.
They've been separated for a while,
so this is what's gonna actually hold them on your face.
Okay, so we're gonna put this underneath your chin.
- [Cameraman] So this is gonna be the attractant.
- This is the attractant.
- Alright guys.
Well I think we have reached the final moment here.
It's either back out or get covered by bees,
and I don't think there's any backing out at this point.
I have the pheromone attached to my chin.
Got a GoPro here, GoPro on my shoulder,
both of your cameras going.
Now wait, wait, wait, wait.
Before we go through with this, how do I get the bees off?
What if something goes wrong?
What do I do?
- Good luck, man.
I'm just gonna drive away.
(Coyote laughs)
Nothing's gonna go wrong when it comes down to the bees.
If they get to the point
where they are stinging excessively,
you can just shake off real quick.
- Put these in your pocket.
- Epinephrine pens.
Just in case this really goes wrong.
I am getting nervous now.
Now I'm getting nervous.
I'm Coyote Peterson and I'm about to take on
the bee beard challenge.
Are you ready?
- [Chris] Yep.
- Okay, let's do this.
- [Chris] No turning back now buddy.
Come on girls.
Come on girls, up you go.
- [Cameraman] How you feeling now Coyote?
- It's a lot of bees.
It's tough to talk.
- [Cameraman] There's a bee right on your nose.
- I feel it.
- [Cameraman] That's a lot of bees.
Are you feeling nervous?
Have you been stung yet?
- No stings yet.
- [Cameraman] That's good. That means you're remaining calm.
- My leg is shaking.
Stung on the lip.
- [Cameraman] It's stuck on you.
You alright?
Be brave.
- My neck is consumed.
- [Cameraman] I'm gonna take a couple steps back.
I just got stung.
Right in my hand.
I didn't realize we were getting
swarmed by bees this morning.
- There a lot of bees on me?
- You got it. You got this.
- Getting stung a lot.
I've gotten stung about six times.
Ow, my neck is getting stung again.
- This is what we start with right here.
We just get more for the bees to start on him.
Then what they're gonna do
is they're gonna emit a pheromone,
and it's a location pheromone,
and those bees are just gonna start basically migrating.
So now I can actually just basically hold this right here
and they're gonna all start marching up, watch.
- Are all the bees out?
- [Chris] No.
- My lip is swelling up.
- [Chris] You're alright.
- [Cameraman] You definitely have a full neck of bees.
- I can feel them all.
- [Cameraman] Are you still getting stung?
- No, not right now.
- [Cameraman] So what is Coyote-
- It stung the lip again!
Same spot.
It's really starting to hurt.
- [Cameraman] Wow, Coyote there.
You are just covered in bees man.
- It's actually turning out pretty well.
- Lip!
Alright, I think I need to get them off.
- Are you okay or you want them off?
- It's a lot of pain.
- [Cameraman] But you've almost got it.
You're so close.
- Go ahead.
- [Cameraman] You got it, you got it.
Power through, you got this.
You already got stung, you can do it.
- My eyes.
I'm getting stung a lot.
Alright, gotta get 'em off.
- [Chris] Go ahead and just jump.
Real hard. You just knock 'em off.
- They're all on my face.
My eyes!
- [Cameraman] You alright?
- Smoke me, I'm getting stung a lot.
- [Chris] You got stung quite a bit.
- There's one on my hand.
- [Cameraman] Oh yeah. I guess he just stung you big time.
- [Chris] You got stung a bunch bud.
- Can I walk away?
Oh man, my face hurts.
- [Cameraman] You should see the sting
you have in your neck.
- Oh my gosh.
- [Cameraman] Are you okay?
- Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
- [Cameraman] Is your tongue swelling up?
The tongue is the indicator.
- No, not yet, but my face is on fire.
- [Cameraman] Oh man, okay.
I think we're good now.
It's only a couple bees and they're just following
the pheromone on your face.
Hold on, you still got stingers all in your ears.
Oh my gosh.
Let me see if I can get them out.
- Dude, I got stung like so many times.
All of a sudden, all at once they started stinging my face.
And on my ears.
- [Cameraman] I wanna get the stinger out of your ear.
- [Chris] You okay bud?
- Sorry, I was just getting a lot of stings.
- No, it's fine buddy.
You got 'em through your shirt and everything.
For some odd reason, all of the sudden,
they started just absolutely going to town on you.
You can see, look at that right there.
That actually literally...
- [Cameraman] It drew blood.
- [Chris] Yeah, it got blood to the surface.
You just got stung like 40 times in the face by honey bees.
- [Cameraman] 40!
I don't think that was supposed to happen Chris.
- [Chris] I don't know why.
I wasn't getting all blasted up.
I mean, I got stung like once or twice
but he was literally just getting beat up.
- Oh my gosh.
Dude, my face is in so much pain right now.
- [Cameraman] You alright?
How's the tongue?
- Really, really painful.
My tongue is not swollen but my entire,
my lips, I can't feel my lips.
- [Cameraman] Where's Mario at?
- [Chris] He's over there filming.
- [Cameraman] Hey, tell him to come over here.
- [Chris] Hey Mario.
- [Cameraman] Mario!
- [Chris] He's probably covered up by bee sounds still.
- [Cameraman] Come over here.
Was it worth it?
- Oh man, I can see my lip in the lens.
- [Cameraman] You don't wanna look at yourself right now.
You don't wanna look in a mirror right now.
- Well, I guess I better give you some sort of outro
of where I can't talk 'cause I find that my lips
are not working properly at the moment.
- [Cameraman] Alright, I'm gonna try to be calm.
Alright, go for it.
- I'm gonna be calm.
I think based on the look on my face,
the bee beard is not the new fashion trend.
I lasted for about a minute and a half
with my face covered in around 3,000 bees.
Once they started stinging my lips, it got really painful.
They were swarming around my eyes.
I was getting stung on my hands,
on my arms, on my forehead, on my ears,
but it was definitely the lips
as you can see from how swollen they are right now
that were the worst.
I'd definitely say that the bee beard
was an experience worth experiencing.
So far I haven't had any major adverse allergic reactions
other than just this localized swelling
on my hands and on my face.
- [Cameraman] (laughing) You can hardly tell.
- You think this looks okay?
- [Cameraman] You can hardly tell.
- I can tell you guys are having a real hard time
not laughing while we're trying to get this outro.
We counted around two dozen stings on my body at this point.
My lips are swelling up.
My eyes swelling up.
As you see, the drool's coming out of my mouth.
But I'm Coyote Peterson, and that was the bee beard.
Be brave.
Stay wild.
We'll see you on the next adventure.
Oh, that's painful.
- [Narrator] When it was all said and done,
we counted a total of 32 stings
that spanned my face, lips, ears, neck, and arms.
The neurotoxin of the European honey bee
is very specialized and is notorious
for causing extreme localized swelling.
For me, this began immediately,
and despite the disfigured, lumpy,
baked potato look of my face,
I actually handled the venom very positively,
and within 48 hours, was completely back to normal.
- Now the guys have their bee suits on
and they're gonna put the bees back into their hives.
So far, about 30 minutes have gone by.
No anaphylactic shock so I should be just fine
other than the fact that my face
looks like the face of the elephant man.
Now I can see in the reflection of your glasses,
it is not pretty.
It is not pretty.
- [Narrator] If you were wondering how this compared
to the single sting from a bullet ant,
I can honestly say it was worse.
As compared to the warrior wasp,
I guess we will just have to wait and see.
If you thought wearing a beard
of European honey bees was intense,
wait until you see what happens
when we go up against a swarm of 30,000 killer bees
to extract some wild honey.
Don't forget, subscribe so you can join me and the crew
on this season of Breaking Trail.