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Watch Secrets of the Bees Season 1 Episode 1 online in HD on Dailymotion (2026).
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00:03You hear them before you see them, buzzing around the garden, hovering over the flowers,
00:20bees. Wow, so much honey. But what if I told you bees could be the most important animals
00:35on the planet? Oh, you are beautiful. I'm cinematographer and National Geographic
00:42explorer Bertie Gregory. Hello, everyone. For three years, our crews have used special
00:51cameras to uncover the hidden world behind the buzz. A world of impossible architecture,
01:01extraordinary intelligence, and secret dances. That is a waggle. Now, I wonder what they're
01:11saying. Bees are more than just honeymakers, more than stingers, more than we ever imagined.
01:24Poor bees. They're just getting soaked, huddled together, desperately trying to keep warm.
01:29There are over 20,000 species of bees. And together, they pollinate a third of the food
01:40we eat. So come closer. The bees will reveal their secrets.
02:10In the grip of winter, this hive seems abandoned.
02:21But deep inside, a secret world few have ever seen. A family of honeybees, huddled for warmth.
02:46For months, they've lived on honey. Made from the nectar of last summer's flowers.
02:57Producing it took the sacrifice of thousands. And in just a few short weeks, they'll have to
03:09do it all over again.
03:29When temperatures outside reach 50 degrees, the hive comes alive.
03:42And the first new bee of the year is ready to emerge.
03:58Let's call her worker bee one. Like all worker bees, she's female.
04:10Males are born later in the season.
04:20What makes her a bee, and different from the millions of other flying insects, are the thousands
04:27of tiny feathered hairs covering her body.
04:34They're even on her eyes.
04:39These hairs are how she'll collect pollen. But not for a few weeks.
04:45Right now, she's hungry and kind of clueless.
04:53At a day old, worker bee one is completely reliant on her older sisters.
05:06This isn't just food she's sucking in. But a protein rich liquid infused with pheromones.
05:16A chemical instruction to make her think and act like her sisters.
05:24Now, she knows how to be a bee. And what her role is in this extraordinary super organism.
05:43You know, I've spent a good chunk of my life going to far-flung places to film big animals.
05:51If I'm honest, I've overlooked the bees.
05:55But that was a mistake. Because despite their size, they might just be the most important animals on the planet.
06:05One in every three bites of food we eat is pollinated by a bee.
06:12And there is just as much drama in a beehive than on any African savannah.
06:21Hello, my buzzy friends. It's all good. Let's see how you're doing.
06:31Well, you will seem pretty chill, so I'm going to take my hood off.
06:35Oh, that's better. Look at this one here.
06:40Little newborn bee. Go on, you can do it. Yes. Good job. Look at that.
06:49Her first day. You are beautiful. Hello.
06:56And I'm not afraid, because for the first day of their life, they can't sting.
07:03So you're going to be a friendly bee, aren't you?
07:07Well, it's so good to see a baby bee, because that means the colony is growing and they need the
07:12numbers.
07:16This family has a lot to do. From raising 60,000 new bees to collecting nectar from millions of flowers.
07:26All to make the 40 pounds of honey they need for winter.
07:31See you later, everyone. Good luck.
07:33And the clock starts now.
07:41The key to the entire operation comes down to just one bee.
07:50The largest, longest-lived and most revered bee in the family.
07:58The queen. Mother to everyone in the hive.
08:07Her job is to lay eggs.
08:18She glues one to the bottom of a cell.
08:26Then moves on to the next.
08:30Egg. Glue. Move on. Repeat.
08:38Two thousand times a day.
08:41She could live five years doing nothing but laying eggs.
08:49No time to rest.
08:53No time to raise her babies.
08:58That job is left to bee one and her sisters.
09:08They feed the larvae around the clock with a soup of high protein pollen collected from flowers.
09:17In just a week, the babies grow a thousand times bigger.
09:28And are then tucked into their cells.
09:31Ready for their radical transformation into adults.
09:39So extraordinary, yet rarely witnessed.
10:07When this generation emerges, they'll take over nursery duty.
10:18Leaving bee one and her wave of sisters to move on to other important jobs in the hive.
10:33Working together is at the heart of honey bee society.
10:38But most bees have to go it alone.
10:43Solitary, like this red-tailed mason bee.
10:49A little bee with some unique talents.
10:57She's on a quest to find a place to lay her first egg.
11:07But only one kind of nest will do.
11:13An empty snail shell.
11:24An empty snail shell.
11:26This one's too small.
11:32Nope.
11:38No chance.
11:47Could this be the one?
11:52Perfect.
11:54Next, she gathers pollen.
11:57Food for when her youngster hatches.
12:06It also becomes a bed for her egg.
12:13But the pollen attracts a gang of red ants.
12:19Her baby's future is at stake.
12:28But this time, big jaws.
12:32Trump, smaller ones.
12:37Nursery secure, for now.
12:40But the shells at the wrong angle.
12:44Rain could flood the entrance.
12:48She can't let that happen.
13:00By excavating the soil around her shell, she creates the space to flip it.
13:12And settles it into the ground.
13:16But there's one final problem to solve.
13:20How to hide the shell.
13:23And the way she does that has earned her the nickname.
13:29The broomstick bean.
13:37Like a mini Harry Potter, she carries stick after stick back to her shell.
13:47This one's a little ambitious.
14:12She's smart enough to use the world around her.
14:15weaving an impenetrable fortress with hundreds of sticks to perfectly camouflage her nest and protect her precious egg.
14:28Once complete, she buzzes off.
14:32But before the season's up, she'll build at least 20 more nests.
14:38A big job for one little bee.
14:52As summer draws near, our honeybee population has nearly doubled.
15:00They need more space.
15:07So young bee one is assigned to the honeycomb construction crew.
15:15With the lower walls complete, her job is to build up.
15:21Using her sisters as a living scaffold.
15:27She can climb anywhere in the hive.
15:38And she's come prepared with tiny discs of wax made by special glands on her body.
15:48Bees are the only animals to use wax as a building material.
15:53And they shape it into one of the wonders of animal architecture.
16:01The six-sided bee cell.
16:07It's an engineering marvel.
16:12Incredibly strong, yet almost weightless.
16:16Weightless.
16:17The perfect space-saving shape that uses the least amount of wax.
16:26The hive needs 200,000 new cells.
16:30As cradles for every new bee.
16:34And to store their precious honey.
16:48The future of the family depends on it.
16:56But their growing stores are bound to attract trouble.
17:02So to keep out thieves, B1 is now assigned to be a bouncer.
17:14Every bee in the hive smells the same.
17:19Their scent is an all-access passcode.
17:24Those that don't belong smell different.
17:29And wasps are real stinkers.
17:36These wannabes will do all they can to sneak inside and steal the honey.
17:46Just not on her watch.
17:58In the mountain forests of Japan.
18:00The Asian honeybee faces a much more frightening foe.
18:10Giant hornets.
18:14Wasps on steroids.
18:18Known by some as murder hornets.
18:24Because that is what they do.
18:36A nearby hive is in the firing line.
18:51The honeybee's first line of defense.
18:56Is the bee equivalent of a stadium wave.
19:01Designed to be a show of strength.
19:10But it's not scaring the hornet.
19:21The bees retreat.
19:24And regroup.
19:29Luckily, the entrance is too narrow for the giant.
19:35Those inside are safe.
19:47But this is just a scout gathering intelligence.
19:58The hornets.
19:59The hornet marks the hive with a chemical scent.
20:05That will guide her and her clan.
20:09Right back.
20:15The bees need to get rid of the smell fast.
20:22And what they do next is astonishing.
20:27Workers race to collect fragrant leaves to mask the hornet's scent.
20:34This extraordinary behavior is a rare example of tool use.
20:48The bees work quickly.
20:52The bees work quickly.
20:53But not fast enough.
20:54The bees will have.
20:56The hornets back.
21:00With her sisters.
21:13Hornets eat adult bees.
21:19but what they're really after are the thousands of larvae inside
21:27and together they slice their way in
21:53the bees only hope for survival
21:56is to respond as one
22:03hold now
22:11the bees vibrate their wings together to generate
22:15extreme heat
22:19the temperature in the center reaches 115 degrees
22:29hot enough to fry a hornet
22:40the next invader gets the same treatment
22:59their collective action has achieved the near impossible
23:05and save the colony
23:11but the abilities of an individual bee can be just as impressive
23:22dr sammy ramsey is one of the most influential bee scientists in the world
23:29bees are among the most intelligent insects on the planet
23:34their brain is about the size of a pinhead but it's packed with these neurons that are specifically
23:41structured for learning
23:51sammy has come to queen mary university of london
23:55to see first hand a remarkable breakthrough that looks inside the mind of a bee
24:03the bumblebee lab is at the forefront of understanding bee intelligence
24:09dr alice bridges is showing sammy an experiment
24:14one that surprised the scientific community
24:32there's no real reward on this side there's no source of food there's just the option to play
24:38yeah bees are pretty reward driven animals like they always want to get more food
24:44and yet we see here that they chose to play instead
24:49when we think of play we think of bears and lion cubs and puppies
24:55insects are not the creatures that you would normally think of
25:00this study is extraordinary because it's the first time that play has been demonstrated in insects
25:10play is something that's seen as a means of practicing for the sorts of skills that you'll need more broadly
25:16in life
25:17exactly bees especially these bumblebees are going to be handling so many different types of flowers
25:23perhaps this is a way that they can refine their skills before leaving the hive
25:28but there's another test that reveals even more about bumblebee intelligence
25:34a lot of our experiments that we do here we design tasks as kind of these artificial flowers
25:40ah we put on this yellow target here sugary water they go crazy for this
25:46but ah they can't get to it because because of the lid they have to do a series of two
25:52behaviors
25:53so they have to move the blue door first
25:55oh wow push that out of the way and then
25:58and then the red one i i don't think a lot of people would have expected a bee to be
26:03able to solve this
26:05for the experiment to work one bee has to be trained
26:10does someone in here know what they're doing
26:12yeah we have a bee already trained um number 75 if you can see her
26:19oh yeah there she goes
26:24there you go oh she's motivated oh she's going straight for the
26:29oh she's hopefully gonna show us what we've taught her
26:34okay so she has to move the blue door first then the red one you're going for the red come
26:38on
26:38they always give it a little go just in case
26:41just in case okay but no it looks like she's figuring it out
26:49come on come on
26:51oh push push push yes
26:53yes
26:54go 75 you've got this
26:56come on 75
26:58we are rooting for you
27:03there it goes keep pushing
27:05come on come on
27:10doing one thing to get there would be the single order thinking
27:14but the second order thinking is i have to move this in order to move that
27:20they're able to see farther into the future than just the immediate future
27:27it's really quite remarkable
27:31the really cool thing about this experiment is that if we leave her in here for long enough with the
27:36box with the other bees
27:38they'll be able to learn how to open the box with no training at all just from observing her
27:43but have the untrained bee students been paying attention
27:49we've got another bee here who might have sort of started to figure out what's going on she's following behind
27:54are you serious that quickly
27:55yeah
27:57can you push that
27:59come on
28:03oh my gosh
28:05what it could be
28:08okay there's one more step in this process
28:12push
28:13push
28:14push
28:20the way that these insects have had to think their way around problems
28:25forces us to think differently because they are a lot more intelligent and aware than we've given them credit
28:38a bee's problem solving skills are vital in their daily lives
28:45especially when gathering food like pollen
28:51and few do it quite like the buff tailed bumble bee
29:00this flower tucks its pollen away in tubular petals hard to reach
29:06so she becomes a jackhammer
29:11buzzing at up to 400 vibrations per second
29:19blasting the hidden pollen loose
29:22where she catches it on her hairy belly
29:30but unlocking this treasure takes practice
29:35as this first timer discovers
29:39whoops
29:45she's nailed the loosening bit at least
29:51like any new skill success comes from trial and error
30:00yeah
30:01there you go
30:08the bee now uses her legs to brush the pollen grains down her body
30:16next she does something remarkable and never filmed before
30:25to stop the pollen blowing off in flight
30:28she adds a drop of nectar
30:34passed to her back legs
30:36to glue the grains into a solid packet for travel
30:51back at the hive
30:53summer is in full swing
30:58inside
30:59bee one has finally been promoted
31:02to the workers top job
31:04her new mission collect pollen
31:08and the raw ingredient for honey
31:11nectar
31:13but where to get it
31:19as usual
31:20she turns to an older sister
31:24introducing
31:26the waggle dance
31:29it's how honey bees talk to each other
31:35these groovy moves
31:37tell others
31:39not just where to find the best nectar
31:43but the angle to take
31:45when leaving the hive
31:47how far away it is
31:51and even any detours along the way
31:56it's a bee's GPS
32:00the bee line
32:01the most direct path to the nectar
32:09message received
32:13but leaving the hive is a risky business
32:18especially when it's your first time
32:23there's good reason for her to be hesitant
32:27nearly half of all new foragers never see their family again
32:34one of the biggest dangers is getting lost
32:38so on takeoff
32:40b1
32:41faces the hive
32:44then
32:45makes a mental note of the landmark surrounding
32:49whoops
32:54once she's locked in the view
32:57she's off
33:01the trip could take her two miles from home
33:08with pit stops at thousands of flowers
33:17in her lifetime
33:19she'll gather less than a teaspoon of nectar
33:25but every drop is vital to the family
33:33not everything the flower hides is sweet
33:40a crab spider
33:51for b1
33:52it's hard to separate petal from predator
33:59but then she's never seen a spider before
34:09lucky for her
34:11this crab spider isn't hungry
34:19but some sisters
34:24aren't so fortunate
34:37next stop
34:39pollen
34:40the powdery grains plants use to reproduce
34:44and a vital bee food
34:52the little pollen grains stick to her hairs
34:57some will drop off on different flowers
35:03seeding them as she goes
35:08this is the way bees pollinate three quarters of all flowering plants
35:15a partnership that dates back to the age of the dinosaurs
35:23loaded with food she heads for home
35:28but when your cargo of nectar and pollen doubles your weight
35:33it can make touchdowns
35:35well
35:36tricky
35:45inside b1 unloads her baskets of pollen
35:53it'll be used later to feed the larvae
36:03then she passes her nectar to a sister
36:10but this isn't food sharing
36:15it's the recipe for making honey
36:20with each transfer the sisters add enzymes
36:25that break down the nectar to make it edible
36:33the workers then store this sugar solution in cells
36:40but there's one final step
36:45beating their wings at 170 times a second
36:49the sisters fan the mixture to evaporate the water
36:58and after three fantastic days the transformation is complete
37:06nectar has become liquid gold
37:10honey
37:14it takes two million flowers to make just one pound of honey
37:19the sisters will need forty times that to see them through winter
37:26and they're only halfway there
37:34for some bees just finding nectar is the hardest part
37:46in the amazon jungle flowers are less common than you'd think
37:55so fire bees have a plan b
38:01sap sucking tree hoppers
38:07but the bees don't eat the little suckers
38:11but the bees don't eat the little suckers
38:12they farm them
38:22tree hoppers excrete a sugary substance called honeydew
38:27honeydew
38:28similar to nectar
38:29and they're willing to trade it
38:35for protection from their enemies
38:39like assassin bugs
38:55now to claim the reward
38:58now to claim the reward
39:15who needs flowers when getting food is like turning on a tap
39:20when getting food is like turning on a tap
39:43so the fire bees must lighten the load
39:46so the fire bees must lighten the load
39:51unlike honey bees they let the sun's heat evaporate the water
39:57and concentrate it into a sugary syrup that's light enough to carry home
40:10fire bees are not the only ones who've had to adapt to a scarcity of nectar
40:16there's one bee in this jungle that's taken its diet in a whole new direction
40:25vulture bees
40:26vulture bees
40:27the world's most unusual bee
40:33like their namesake they have a taste for the dead
40:39and their sense of smell is so acute
40:43they can sniff out their food from half a mile away
40:50a rancid fish
40:55this is the only bee that relies on rotting flesh
41:10she may have found the fish first
41:13but you can always rely on a fly to muscle in on a free meal
41:23finders keepers doesn't work here
41:30but she is a bee with attitude
41:37willing to go jaw to jaw
41:40with even the roughest looking diners
41:48luckily her sisters appear
41:51and help to see off the competition
42:05just like real vultures
42:07these bees are the ultimate cleanup crew
42:13and amazingly they can even turn this digested meat into honey
42:26the sisterhood is having a successful summer
42:32they've filled more than half their honey cells
42:39but it's come at a cost
42:48our bee one
42:50the year's first arrival has given it her all
42:58being a worker her life was sweet but short
43:15to stop the spread of disease
43:19fallen sisters must be removed
43:32but for some
43:34letting go
43:35can be hard
43:50be one
43:52be one
43:52isn't the only casualty
44:02Hundreds of sisters die every day.
44:07And yet the colony has ballooned to over 60,000.
44:15A population boom that triggers the most dramatic event in the family's life.
44:24It's the signal for the queen to leave the hive and start a new colony.
44:32Many of her daughters must follow.
44:38But before they leave, they feast on the hard-won stores.
44:46It could be days before they'll feed again.
44:53We don't yet understand what makes one bee leave and another stay.
45:00But soon, hundreds.
45:04Then thousands join the queen.
45:10Half the colony.
45:16It's how honeybees colonize new locations.
45:2730,000 now take to the air in a swarm.
45:36Their first task is to set up a temporary base.
45:48Scouts will set off from here to look for a permanent home.
45:54And that makes it a perfect time for me to check in.
45:59Hello, everyone.
46:02You are looking very beautiful.
46:06So many bees.
46:11It's just this massive living structure.
46:15And buried deep down in the center is the queen.
46:18With all the other workers gathering around her.
46:24It's just the most amazing thing to look at.
46:30It looks pretty intimidating.
46:32There's a lot of stinging power right there.
46:36But...
46:37Oh, right on my lip.
46:39Please don't go in my mouth.
46:41See, it's a common misconception that when bees are swarming,
46:45they're always very angry and aggressive.
46:48But they don't have any honey or brood to defend.
46:51So, you know, really, kind of preoccupied at the moment.
46:55I'm just part of the landscape.
46:59So, this is a great opportunity to film them up close.
47:11The ones at the top holding onto the branch are doing the heavy lifting.
47:18But every bee in the swarm plays a part by holding tight to her sisters.
47:23Wow.
47:31And tonight, it looks as if they'll have to hold on tighter than ever.
47:37New rain's coming.
47:44It's the last thing the vulnerable family needs.
47:48It is pouring.
47:51Poor bees.
47:52They're just getting soaked.
47:55With nothing to shield them,
47:58the entire colony could die from the cold.
48:01And they're cuddled together, desperately trying to keep warm.
48:07But even now, the bees work together.
48:12They rotate their positions to take their turn out in the elements.
48:21But if it keeps raining like this, they won't survive the night.
48:28There's nothing I can do, but hope they'll make it till morning.
48:35Back at the hive, things look just as bleak.
48:40They've lost their queen and half their workers.
48:48Honey supplies are down.
48:52And winter is just four months away.
49:18And winter is just four months away.
49:36The T
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