True Facts: Bees That Play With Balls And Do Math!

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Thanks you:
Dr Lars Chittka, Queen Mary University of London
Dr Martin Giurfa, Sorbonne University
Dr Charles Abramson, Oklahoma State University
Dr Tom Seeley, Cornell University
Dr Julien Serres, Aix Marseille University: / @julienserres
Dr Joanna Brebner, CRCA, Université Paul Sabatier, Toulouse III, CNRS, France
Dr Hiruni Samadi Galpayage Dona, Università di Trento
Dr Charles Walcott, Cornell University
Dr Constance Blary, University of Montpellier
Patrick Sainton
Ben Hoksch: / @ephemeral4355
Institute of Mouvement Sciences - Etienne-Jules Marey (CNRS/Aix Marseille Université, UMR7287), France: ism.univ-amu.fr/en
TIB
Abramson CI, Dinges CW, Wells H. Operant Conditioning in Honey Bees (Apis mellifera L.): The Cap Pushing Response. PLoS One. 2016 Sep 14;11(9):e0162347. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0162347.
Alem S, Perry CJ, Zhu X, Loukola OJ, Ingraham T, Søvik E, Chittka L. Associative Mechanisms Allow for Social Learning and Cultural Transmission of String Pulling in an Insect. PLoS Biol. 2016 Oct 4;14(10):e1002564. doi: 10.1371/journal.pbio.1002564. Erratum in: PLoS Biol. 2016 Dec 29;14 (12 ):e1002589.
Bortot M, Stancher G, Vallortigara G. Transfer from Number to Size Reveals Abstract Coding of Magnitude in Honeybees. iScience. 2020 May 22;23(5):101122. doi: 10.1016/j.isci.2020.101122.
Bridges, A.D., Royka, A., Wilson, T. et al. Bumblebees socially learn behaviour too complex to innovate alone. Nature 627, 572-578 (2024). doi.org/10.1038/s41586-024-07...
Galpayage Dona, Hiruni Samadi. Cwyn Solvi, Amelia Kowalewska, Kaarle Mäkelä, HaDi MaBouDi, Lars Chittka,
Do bumble bees play?, Animal Behaviour, Volume 194, 2022, Pages 239-251, ISSN 0003-3472, doi.org/10.1016/j.anbehav.202....
Giovanetti, Manuela & Aronne, Giovanna. (2013). Honey bee handling behaviour on the papilionate flower of Robinia pseudoacacia L. Arthropod-Plant Interactions. 7. 10.1007/s11829-012-9227-y.
Harald E. Esch, John E. Burns; Distance Estimation by Foraging Honeybees. J Exp Biol 1 January 1996; 199 (1): 155-162. doi: doi.org/10.1242/jeb.199.1.155
Howard SR, Avarguès-Weber A, Garcia JE, Greentree AD, Dyer AG. Numerical cognition in honeybees enables addition and subtraction. Sci Adv. 2019 Feb 6;5(2):eaav0961. doi: 10.1126/sciadv.aav0961.
Howard SR, Greentree J, Avarguès-Weber A, Garcia JE, Greentree AD and Dyer AG (2022) Numerosity Categorization by Parity in an Insect and Simple Neural Network. Front. Ecol. Evol. 10:805385. doi: 10.3389/fevo.2022.805385
Loukola OJ, Solvi C, Coscos L, Chittka L. Bumblebees show cognitive flexibility by improving on an observed complex behavior. Science. 2017 Feb 24;355(6327):833-836. doi: 10.1126/science.aag2360.
Muth F, Papaj DR, Leonard AS. Colour learning when foraging for nectar and pollen: bees learn two colours at once. Biol Lett. 2015 Sep;11(9):20150628. doi: 10.1098/rsbl.2015.0628. Erratum in: Biol Lett. 2015 Oct;11(10). pii: 20150841. doi: 10.1098/rsbl.2015.0841.
Nieder A. Honey bees zero in on the empty set. Science. 2018 Jun 8;360(6393):1069-1070. doi: 10.1126/science.aat8958.
Scholze, E., Pichler, H. and Heran, H. (1964). Zur Entfernungsschätzung der Bienen nach dem Kraftaufwand. Naturwissenschaften 51, 69-70. doi.org/10.1007/BF00603471
Serres, J. R., Morice, A. H., Blary, C., Miot, R., Montagne, G., & Ruffier, F. (2022). Floor and ceiling mirror configurations to study altitude control in honeybees. Biology Letters, 18(3), 20210534.
Skorupski P, MaBouDi H, Galpayage Dona HS, Chittka L. Counting insects. Philos Trans R Soc Lond B Biol Sci. 2017 Feb 19;373(1740):20160513. doi: 10.1098/rstb.2016.0513.
Smith, D., Bernhardt, G., Raine, N. et al. Exploring miniature insect brains using micro-CT scanning techniques. Sci Rep 6, 21768 (2016). doi.org/10.1038/srep21768

[@zefrank]

Please check out brilliant.org/zefrank to get a 30-day free trial + 20% off their annual subscription.

[@bigbossimmotal]

What happened to Jerry? Is he on vacation? lol

[@4362mont]

@@bigbossimmotal Apparently, Jerry got left behind.

[@TheDeepening718]

Ya, but is it the bee that's smart? You first have to prove that the bee is responsible (response-able).

[@HamsterFlex]

Please make a sister channel for kids

[@Lovehandels]

omg bees love balls is my new jam!

[@andrewhall9739]

It sounds like you could train 2 teams of bees to score goals in different colored nets and give them 1 ball to see a game of bee-soccer

[@FortuitousWench]

could? i think Should may be the better word here. bee soccer may be a moral imperative

[@anjafrohlich1170]

That's the stuff they should show in the sports channel

[@thebenefactor6744]

Hümmel Hümmel!

[@gaby300470]

You mean bee football. ⚽🐝

[@cdbosh]

@@gaby300470 - clearly the name is "rug-bee"! 😂

[@lu-cipher]

"They're learning, but they're not quite getting the full picture" is me at university

[@thegamerfox96]

Same.

[@Alizudo]

Wish I could go to university

[@drukharimatter2962]

That’s people living life in general ☺️

[@lu-cipher]

@@drukharimatter2962 too true. as long as we're learning I guess it's okay :)

[@bg6b7bft]

So your grade is a B average?

[@colorbugoriginals4457]

"What do you do for a living?" "I train bees."

[@eledatowle8767]

I am not pissing off that scientist.

[@user-cl5yb3vj2l]

"Beads?" "BEES!"

[@primesspct2]

its a sad state of affairs when I can barely train my dog, The trainer of the bees must be pretty special too! (and probably like ball's too)

[@whannabi]

​@@primesspct2 There's a reason educators exist. You gotta learn to teach even more when it's a different animal like a dog

[@dwilson6769]

Hank Pym be proud

[@CosmicSphincter]

I like how everyone’s love of bees only gets more justified over time. They’re important to the environment, cute, and smart. Such lovely animals.

[@protocetid]

Native bee species are the ones that are most in danger. People think the alarm is just about domesticated bees, but these add to the problems of regional bees.

[@olgakim4848]

We need bees to pollinate many of the fruits and veggies we eat every day, including coffee and chocolate!

[@circa134]

boooo european honey bee

[@justinwatson1510]

More importantly, they love playing with balls and dancing in the dark. Queer icons.

[@bugjams]

​​@@protocetid Came here to comment this, I'm glad this knowledge is becoming so common that it was the first reply. To add to what you've said; it's not just that domesticated bees _aren't_ in danger, they actually _pose a threat_ to native bee populations. Our honeybees are an invasive, domesticated species that we ship around the country throughout the year to keep them producing non-stop. Because they keep getting introduced to fields and forests where they aren't native, they out-compete with native bees and starve them of nectar/pollen. We've already lost 40 species of native bees so far due to this, probably more if we were to check again by this point. And if anyone thinks, "Who cares, the plants will just get pollinated by the honeybees then, right? No net loss?", this actually is _very_ bad. Assuming you don't care enough that the loss of a unique species is tragic to you, replacing native bees with honeybees is going to screw us over - and potentially end up starving millions of people. See, species diversity is _crucial_ in ecosystems for a number of reasons. For one, each species may have a slightly different role, or niche, to fill. Our honeybees may outcompete a native species, but then fail to have the proper routine or behavior that leads to successful pollination of a particular plant. The second - and most damning problem, however - is that having only a single species of bee will mean that, if a bee-killing disease comes along, and the honeybees are susceptible to it, it's over. Colony collapse disease is already a small, but poignant example of how bad it _could_ get. Whereas, if you had 100 bee species, the disease may catch a dozen or so, maybe even the majority of them - but some will be immune, so the ecosystem has time to recover. But... you really should just care about the extinction of native bees for the sake of life. 40 species are already gone for good, never coming back. It will take thousands, perhaps millions of years for species diversification to repair that gap. Many of these bee species were beautiful as well. If we have the option to _not_ wipe out a unique species for short-term profit, I think we should, y'know, go with that option?

[@kennyp4670]

'damn bees and their metric system. think theyre sooo smart' -inch worms

[@ekathe85]

"I've got four twenties and nineteen problems but a b*tch ain't one" - French poodles

[@MossyMozart]

@kennyp4670 - .^_^.

[@TheSeptemberRose]

😂

[@MiCKi914]

Underrated comment

[@Catachrest]

🏆

[@lcgiv4u]

Bees are so smart they don’t even know

[@WSWC_]

The only thing that differentiates humans from most animals in my opinion is the ability to "perceive" that we're dumb, that the unknown will always be more vast than anything else.

[@W4iteFlame]

True

[@Dalton_Boardman2000]

​​@@WSWC_That blew my mind. We're smart because on some level we know we'll never know everything. The thing is though we can't really look into the imagination of animals. I'm sure there's monkeys in jungles or apes in captivity that do think or ponder what lies beyond their habitat but their stronger natural instincts will tell them to stay put.

[@kaidevaleria2531]

Once they start thinking they are smart it’s all downhill from there lol

[@tomcollins5112]

They serve their purpose, and they do it well. But they can't comprehend the greater world or the universe. If you tried communicating concepts like the Pacific Ocean, or the moon, or the zodiac, they wouldn't understand you.

[@patriot1560]

I've been a beekeeper for about 5 years now, my second year doing it I started to realize how intelligent they actually were. I would feed them sugar water when they were low on honey reserves. If they were out of sugar water they would come to my house which was about .25 of a mile away and look for me and they would buzz all around me. If one one would sting me and realize it's me, they would spin in a circle to get the stinger out instead of releasing the venom and killing themselves. Honeybees are truly fascinating.

[@nightowlorder2750]

So basically they act like your pets Sounds nice I guess you can in fact have a pet bee

[@direttaer203]

@@nightowlorder2750 Even better, you get full hive of bees that know you. Same for wasps and other social insects.

[@Zillionman2010]

So when do you send the letters demanding all the world's money or you release your army of bees?

[@patriot1560]

@@Zillionman2010 I don't want to be rich. I'm happy where I'm at. But, I could release them at any moment

[@spicysalad3013]

I thought bee stings couldn't be removed by the bee at all, that's interesting!

[@weeb3277]

imagine being so sadistic as to glue a ball that bees like to play with

[@DanGamingFan2846]

I just find it so cute and hilarious that bees will stop whatever they're doing to play with balls. And it's honestly impressive what smart, fast learners they are for an insect.

[@watershipup7101]

For a creature with less than a million neurons, they've achieved quite a lot.

[@waterbullstudios9195]

It's adorable watching them go and rolle around.

[@thusnameddigital9397]

Pretty good for an insect.

[@elizaalmabuena]

work, work, work, work, wo..........BALL!!!!!!

[@onewayturtles]

They're like tiny puppies that fly and sting!

[@nat2057]

"A to B to bee to bee-"

[@3nertia]

ZeFrank's little "heheh" after delivering that line really killed me xD

[@RaiNAgara]

5:11 for the timestamp.

[@TheKingOfTheHaters]

This joke really got me

[@fisionit9150]

To bee or not to bee? That is a question...

[@eloerch7]

When its so good u laugh at your own joke.

[@Nana-pw6ix]

As a prior beekeeper I was astonished by how smart and organised bees are! My African honey bees could recognise me even if I was wearing a cap, sunglasses or a different hairstyle. I was the only person who could walk up and down past the beehive and cut the grass in the area without them reacting. If anyone else came within eye sight they would get aggressive and very defensive. This means they passed knowledge of me being their safe person to multiple generations during the years I tended the beehive.

[@spicysalad3013]

I can't help but picture this "The one who takes the honey away is chasing a loud monster that's destroying the grass, are we in danger?!" "No child, that's just one of its weird routines, it's been doing that monthly since our queen was young with no harm to us"

[@westminsterabbey.6916]

“It flew like three feet and found a shoe” took me out 🤣

[@spicysalad3013]

i rewatched that part like five times 😭

[@MM-sx7zs]

Bees having an understanding of the concept of zero is actually really cool

[@castonyoung7514]

Couldn't they have just learned to go for more white space? He acts like black is inherently something and white is just blank, but I doubt a bee would see things that way. Furthermore, I heard people tried to teach (a) bear(s) to count, but bears would keep picking the box with the larger dots that take up more space rather than the one with the more dots (which was actually the rule), so I would assume that unless I am misremembering things (or that was just a really stupid bear and/or scientist), the bee would also just be learning to pick the square with more white space or blue space.

[@gabrielcampbell376]

@@castonyoung7514 I would note that in the example provided, they did have the shapes be different sizes. So the bees had to specifically identify individual patches.

[@fltof2]

If they understand 0 and 1, perhaps you can teach them binary.

[@gwennorthcutt421]

@@fltof2 beenary

[@fltof2]

@@gwennorthcutt421 ROTFLMAO!

[@russellwhitmyer6764]

The bee brain is small but has excellent Firmware.

[@PowerEd8]

Sounds like some sht TierZoo and Casual geographic would say Love all 3 of em 😁

[@noteworthyinsignificance]

Dang. You win.

[@BasicallyBaconSandvichIV]

@@PowerEd8 You've got great taste.

[@erwinrogoza614]

As if the firmware barely has any bug!.. Maybe only one!

[@TragoudistrosMPH]

It's true... Invertebrates lack myelin, so they have larger neurons to carry electrical current. It would be great followup to see if the larger neurons have better networking capabilities or not 🤔

[@unrealed]

We're gonna need an extremely extended version of "Bees Love Balls", btw

[@GordonAu]

And the waggle dance also accounts for the *movement of the sun*, with its angle shifting appropriately as time passes. Freakin' amazing. Great episode!

[@Warp9pnt9]

Not only do I have to worry about bees being attracted to my food and drink at a BBQ, now I have to cover my balls too?!

[@MultiSuperPotato]

You don't have to 😏

[@Zheeraffa1]

Somebody wants to play with your balls just because they like it, and you complain? smh

[@UniDocs_Mahapushpa_Cyavana]

Clothes do that automatically, using the power of the normal reaction force and deliberately engineered shapes.

[@someenthusiast]

only if your balls are bee sized

[@Zaxares]

Just stop putting that sugar juice on your balls and you should be fine. ;P

[@vlionheart]

Imagine being kidnapped by giants just so they can force you to attend classes on puzzle solving

[@OpDDay2001]

That's just Portal 1 and 2, kind of.

[@EinSophistry]

At least you'd get to play with balls sometimes.

[@mrmeekcreices]

The bees probably think the humans testing them are stupid cause they havent figured out how smart bees are yet.

[@danielgreenwood793]

That's just a description of regular students and bus drivers

[@scruffy-thejanitor]

So elementary school?

[@rogerlafaille9938]

The metric system even adopted by the bees shows how superior it is.

[@metalmamasue3680]

Don't tell the inchworms that 🤭

[@jakevanderveen9213]

The second you mentioned the little dance Bees do to convey directions, you unlocked a memory from my childhood of me learning that exact fact through watching The Magic School Bus.

[@huuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuhn]

at school we only learned that they do their dance to communicate but not how exactly

[@appletree3541]

I love how there are people that get paid to put bees in a box and make them watch you push a tiny ball with a ear cleaner that is painted to look like a bee

[@henrieketebrake4635]

As an aspiring behavioral ecologist, you'd be surprised what kind of shenanigans you can get paid for.

[@queenebil]

It is not as easy as it looks 8)

[@Fralexion]

We still haven't figured out which humans are just alien ear cleaners on sticks, though

[@macaronsncheese9835]

​@@henrieketebrake4635 one of my favorites is some guys who were researching dinosaur locomotion. The good news is you can easily access living theropods to watch walk around. The bad news is they're all missing one thing- the bigger, heftier tail of nonavian dinos, which is going to affect balance. How does one deal with this? Turns out the answer is "strap a plunger to a chicken's butt"

[@HuckleberryHim]

I think this kind of research is cutting-edge and helps us understand what intelligence, consciousness, etc are really about. We have a million other brained species to study right on this planet, and understanding the diversity of their cognition is essential to understanding the origins and mechanisms of cognition in general

[@Red-mg4ro]

If bees know ones and zeros, that means we're one step closer to bee powered computers. BPUs.

[@crownclowncreations]

This is such an underrated comment

[@Tabbyclaw]

Programmed in beenary.

[@brandyrose9997]

HÀAAA

[@utility63]

Ones and zeroes? So, beenary then?

[@Milk_The_Hopeful]

But can it run doom?

[@quinnbennettpelkey]

I really like that the shoutouts and citations at the end tell you what each person contributed instead of just a "Special thanks to [insert long list of names here]". Super helpful, makes it super easy for me to look at who contributed what and go check out their stuff!

[@spidey475]

The fact that they do those dances in the dark never occurred to me. That's one of those "duh" moments that kinda blew my mind.

[@sallyrutledge4726]

Touch and feel with the antennas and then translate that into direction and distance! I am 76 yrs old now and I am still as blown away by all this as I was in middle school when we read about it ! Bless you for making something so interesting to we humans that we pause long enough to be amazed and learn.🐝🌺💜

[@Tudsamfa]

So, imagine a low-tech alternative universe where our computers run on bees - all computers do is a bunch of low scale math after all, just a lot of it. You fill a tube with sugar water, put a strip of blue and yellow rectangles in a hole and wait 5 minutes and voila- your taxes are done. Of course, just like ours these computers aren't perfect: there are a lot of bugs in the code.

[@tarico4436]

You wait five minutes and--voila!--your taxes are done.

[@FrikInCasualMode]

Terry Pratchett did this already, but with ants. His ant-powered computer even had a sticker on it - "Anthill Inside". 😎

[@strawberrys0da714]

Does this mean bees can run Doom? Also, supposedly they did something like this with crabs.

[@vincenzoditrolio6985]

@@strawberrys0da714they never ran doom on crabs just proved that it’s theoretically possible and then did the math to say how many crabs you need

[@jcdisci]

Yellow/blue = +/-. Sounds like binary to me.

[@pavelmedbery3055]

"Bees don't waste their time explaining to flies why flowers are better than shit." -Fuckin Socrates maybe.

[@englishsteve1465]

So Crates, he da man !

[@milchesarreal6964]

Profound. 😔👌✨

[@adriansam1991]

"we only knew about their spelling" such a geniusly underrated line.

[@huuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuhn]

i was waiting for a line like that tbh

[@thatjillgirl]

Bees were already my favorite insects because they make honey and do dances, but now that I know they can count and teach each other to solve puzzles, it's even better.

[@zakncooper]

I've helped several bees at my house. Some times they get tired from the wind or cold. I've picked them up and given them honey and water while they recover in my hand. Now, sometimes, they just show up looking for me to give them honey or water. If I'm not there, my wife will tell them I'm not home, and they fly away. I love that in some hive I'm part of a bee dance😂

[@OceanSwimmer]

@zacncooper, That sound is my heart melting. Especially because your wife talks to the bees -- and they understand. ❤️🌷🌷❤️ 🫂 to both of you.

[@Tabbyclaw]

The bees understand that sometimes your location produces flowering humans and sometimes it produces non-flowering humans.

[@Callimo]

Ope, those bees might still come around when you die, so best to have someone tell them that you don't live there anymore :O (No need to tell em you're dead, that'll traumatize the bees!)

[@pacthepac8894]

@@Callimo You joke, but there actually is an old tradition similar to that called telling the bees, where if a beekeeper has passed, somebody will go to the hive and inform them of the event. They will also sometimes drape the hive in mourning cloth and give them a small serving of the food and drinks served at the funeral. In some regions this extends to telling the bees about other major events in the beekeeper's life, such as marriage and birth. If the bees aren't told, it's said that the hive or keeper's household will face calamity.

[@icahopilm898]

@@pacthepac8894 This has me in tears 😭😭So sentimental but feels so ludicrous. Precious lol

[@wolfform]

"Bees can do math! And you only thought you knew about their spelling! (kill me...) It's okay, Ze, we're all allowed to have a punny day!

[@Linda-qp9kp]

👍🏻🤣

[@a.N.....]

the little kill me quip was glorious

[@MerryMac1000]

Learning that bee's cannot help themselves when they see a ball and have to play with it is the most wholesome thing I've heard in a while. Bee's are just the best.

[@ayzannah9885]

As a teacher, I feel like Ze Frank is the sort of level you might never achieve but should always strive towards. Also... I'm not entirely convinced that every nominally adult, competent human could figure out all of those shape-and-math-riddles.

[@Cherrymilktea2003]

"The scientists didn't have the balls to go to art school,"🤣

[@rumpelstilzz]

Not that hard to get into art school if you know, the Vienna Academy of High Arts has vowed to never again turn a student applicant down ahahaha

[@Vunderbread]

@@rumpelstilzz Europa - The Last Battle. Hard to find, but it's quite shocking how much true history has been covered up, and why. In fact, the very reason the documentary is so hard to find is indicative that we are still living under a hidden tyranny.

[@Double512]

they used up all their balls teaching bees how to play minigolf

[@Meezer]

True fact, we didn't.

[@kcslc6723]

Honestly, that was me. I wanted to do art in grade school but ended up in STEM because I was pessimistic about the viability of an art career.

[@GippyHappy]

My life has been vastly improved by the knowledge that Bee Golf exists.

[@GippyHappy]

Hold on day ruined by the idea that a bee might have been ostracized by the colony for accidentally giving bad directions cause some jerk scientist moved all the landmarks around

[@user-cl5yb3vj2l]

And is a lot more interesting to watch than human golf! 😆

[@leifericson88]

Been watching this dude for years. Part Sterling Holloway, part Morgan Freeman, part Bill Nye. Pure genius.

[@tylerkuykendall4323]

So, so accurate.

[@kjbaran]

I used to hold an “invisible remote” whenever a bee would fly around scaring the kids. They’d think it was funny and calm down. lol

[@captainjurgh8142]

Bees playing with the balls are by far the most unusual and adorable stuff i've ever seen

[@shadowstep1375]

If there is anything this world has taught me is that the most unusual things in this world are when something beehaves the way we expect.

[@HappyBeezerStudios]

Bees playing with balls, dogs playing with balls, crows using bottle caps as snow sleds.

[@raphaelgarcia9576]

I studied entomology for 5 years and I had no idea bees were so cognitively flexible. Must be those muscular calves.

[@rasmusn.e.m1064]

*Cowgnitively* flexible then?

[@hamsterama]

@@rasmusn.e.m1064 Not sure if English is your native language, but calves are the muscles in the back of the lower legs. Has nothing to do with cows.

[@GermanSausagesAreTheWurst]

@@hamsterama Baby cows are called calves.

[@GermanSausagesAreTheWurst]

Hello Entomology person. I have a question. Can insects get stronger from exercise? If they lift, will they be bigger after their next molt?

[@rasmusn.e.m1064]

@@hamsterama It isn't, and yet I performed a pun I hadn't heard before. hooray.

[@faycelmettoadine7335]

10:56 bees love balllls 🎶🎶🎶🎶🎶

[@teebee9903]

I'm allergic to bees so I learned a great deal about their behaviors to avoid being stung and to not have to kill their hives. I have not been stung since the 1980s. And yet I still learned something new (as usual) from Zefrank's video. One of the best teachers on the internet. I think I would have actually enjoyed school if he had been my teacher.

[@DawnstealerGaming]

I like the other bees tasting the legwarmers of the dancing bee and saying "Yeah...yeah, that's some good shit"

[@kingcosworth2643]

"I saw him in compulsive tones, I said I'll have one of those"

[@Tekdruid]

Isn't that the purpose of legwarmers?

[@HappyBeezerStudios]

Not just leg warmers, it's like meeting your buddies and licking their pants to see what flavour of chips they had that day. And if it's good you want them to tell you where they god it.

[@Aura-Of-Syrinx]

okay this was wild, but out of all of this the fact they understand the concept of zero is honestly the most mindblowing fact o.o

[@theelephantintheroom69]

This is unironically the kinda shit I wanna see scientists spending their time on

[@lisanidog8178]

Wow! Never knew you could train bees. I’m allergic to honey bees, but still love watching them. Every spring a bumblebee always comes, hovers in front of me like a hello and then next year a bumblebee comes. Don’t know if it’s the same. But they all know that every year my mint flowers and they can do what bees do. So maybe the bumblebees that come and hover in front of me is their form of thanks. It’s been happening for 21 years but only with the bumblebees. The honey bees just do their flower thing. No hovering in front of me looking at me. Now I had a clan of wasps taking up residents in my front hedge bush. But only the left one. They sent two to attack me when I had to trim it. Then they learned they weren’t chased out so I can clip when they’re around and they wait until I’m gone and I’m not stung. They can be trained, conditioned, whatever. It’s just amazing that they have that capacity. And they let me watch them do their things with my mint flowers. I bet this May I’ll have a bumblebee visitor hovering in front of me as a greeting before flying away.

[@alphabravo8703]

I've noticed hummingbirds will hover in my face when the feeder needs refilled.

[@lisanidog8178]

@@alphabravo8703 Neat! It’s like they’re saying hurry up we need a refill bartender!

[@dianekokko6254]

I always say hello to my bees when they hover around. I'll stop walking if they seem particularly invested. Gotta love the bees.

[@lisanidog8178]

@@dianekokko6254 I do the same.

[@exavian6]

Noted: Bees love balls.

[@doktormcnasty]

My next girlfriend is going to be a bee.

[@breloommaster12]

@@doktormcnasty the next bee movie

[@wormspeaker]

I knew we had something in common.

[@Lovehandels]

The song at the end goes hard and i want a full song out of it! "No no no, Bees! Love! Balls!"

[@dr.kraemer]

Key lesson here.

[@greggorylovecraft]

That short "Kill me" after the spelling bee joke killed me. Great job as always Ze Frank.

[@sc8307]

That joke was a slow burn.

[@DHxJarsyl]

That bee that flew over the conveyor belt didn't just come back and tell them it was miles away, he told them he developed super speed and flew there without getting tired.

[@starwyn7]

“He’s gone for a vape” 😂 I love this guy. If they had this in high school I would have aced science

[@icallmysugarcandy]

A couple weeks ago I picked up a very sluggish bumble, brought it inside, put it in an open container with some pretty flowers, gave it some sugar water and put it in the sun to warm up and get his mojo back. He strengthened up and flew away eventually but as he did he gave me this look. Like he was thankful but kind of bummed. I didn’t realize what it was until now. I didn’t give him any balls to play with. I will never make that mistake again. There’s nothing worse than a bummed bumble. 😢

[@scarymeunster9095]

You turned him into a bummedblebee, you monster

[@snowjae9380]

That’s so cute!!!

[@HappyBeezerStudios]

Remember, the hive just learned about a great place where you can take a nap and get free breakfast.

[@druid_zephyrus]

Everything was cool. Everything was great. Then you demonstrated the concept of zero and now I'm terrified

[@thebestusername5852]

I am just really happy Zefrank came back from his multi-year hiatus. There were quite a few times when I was cleaning up my subscriptions and I ALMOST unsubscribed. But I was loyal and I'm so glad!

[@RevengeRaptorREAL]

i didnt think it was possible for me to love bees more

[@mariosbrother6845]

"it flew like 3 feet and found a shoe" made me laugh out loud harder than it probably should've

[@MarcosElMalo2]

It’s the bee with 10 subscribers.

[@chrisparker7797]

My doctorate was literally making a bunch of robots use the bee new nest selection strategy to make collective decisions with no one in charge. This video brought back a lot of good memories 😊

[@stephenskinner4857]

I have great LOVE for bees. After graduating from College and wanting to be in the wide open spaces, I went to visit a friend who was a beekeeper in South Dakota. He taught me much about bees, in the a few months I worked with him. I respect these creatures. They are more than devoted than us to a good cause, part of the WHOLE of this planet.

[@The_Hagseed]

The spelling bee joke was subtle, but gold.

[@SiiriCressey]

Gold. Golden. Like honey.

[@a.chipperfield7925]

I came to the comments just to like one about that quip. Too good.

[@maehvna]

The quiet “kill me” at the end is really what got me 😂

[@Heroo01]

it wasn't very subtle lmao

[@huuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuhn]

it was to be expected.

[@thechickenwizard8172]

"But most of the rest of us-sorry, I mean them" Not sure if this is about getting drunk, or if zefrank just admitted to being a swarm of bees in a trenchcoat

[@Viceroy_Sundercles_III]

Why not both?

[@maddiegogal7481]

I’d love to see how convoluted a makeshift flower can get before the bees stop recognizing it as such

[@elitefoxes]

This is not only awesome news of how smart bees are, but i think its even cooler that we deciphered their dance!

[@TonusStoneshield]

The one out of a hundred or so bees that can figure it out is a strong implication that there are in fact bee geniuses. This is mindblowing to me.

[@huuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuhn]

just like in real life

[@atimidbirb]

Bees being taught to roll a ball into a goal for a little drop of sugar water is the most wholesome fucking experiment I have ever heard of and I LOVE IT

[@KingOfElectricNinjas]

It's interesting that they've not just figured out the ways bees can be smart, but the limitations in the way they process and communicate information.

[@BlastedMaster]

That 'now we got a bunch of bees with muscular calves walking around!' line got me!

[@lucasmendoza7576]

I remember learning that people learn and retain information better when the lessons are entertaining and funny. So when some people say putting comedy or puns/jokes in a lecture is informal or distracting and will be deleterious to students' learning, just know it actually helps to make the lesson more flavorful and have greater impact, as opposed to it being bland and forgettable.

[@WombatDave]

Taking AP psychology back in 2002, we learned this. People learn more and retain information better when they're having fun. And yet so many teachers and parents still can't figure out why kids know everything about Fortnite but can't retain the information they read in their dry, boring textbook.

[@redwitch12]

Back in the 2000s, I was doing tech support for a major ISP. We were being trained on supporting a specific internet device. The class was threatening to be very dull, but then someone asked "Where did we get these devices?" and the instructor came right back with "Dave the purchasing guy says he got them from a dude that was selling them out of the trunk of a white Thunderbird" and suddenly we were all paying attention because that was HILARIOUS. Similarly, someone else asked "What do you think the odds are that users will access the help files for troubleshooting?" and the instructor replied "Are you asking if I believe in fairies?" It says something that I still remember THAT about 20 years later, doesn't it? :D (And yes, I COULD still troubleshoot the device in question if I had to...or if it still existed)

[@linksbetweendrinks7032]

Why isn't Timmy paying attention in class? Does he have ADHD!? No, Timmy is human. Humans don't pay attention to boring things that they don't like.

[@amonsatan5263]

I think the quality of the jokes matter a lot though. I had a Government teacher in High School who used tons of the worst imaginable puns, and I only remember how much I hated going to those classes because of the puns. Where as I had an English teacher who had really funny quips, and I remember quite a lot about his class.

[@noahhager1187]

So there's this video of 2 bees unscrewing a Fanta cap. That is just next level

[@huuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuhn]

give em a couple thousand years and they are doing heists on our sugar refineries

[@Karen-ig6bp]

This is beyond precious! Thank you for posting this! 💐❤️

[@kalel13301]

Another fun and educational video! Thanks Ze Frank.

[@kildemahll8908]

My brother helps run a bee research lab at Princeton, and I recommended that he should collaborate with you about a bee vid a couple years ago. I just sent him this link to rub it in his face that he missed his chance do work with the great Ze Frank. My failure as a nobody compared to him is so much sweeter now.

[@spacecruisers]

Legendary comment 😂

[@chickenindoubleC]

This may be the best comment I've ever seen 😂

[@JenJenRome123]

I guess you can say that was such a *sweet* victory huh?

[@kildemahll8908]

@@JenJenRome123 sweeter than honey

[@bodyofhope]

Bee happy with your sweet reward

[@gankgoat8334]

Worked with bees for a summer job and I can tell you that bees play favorites. Over the course of about three months I got stung maybe 4 times while the other interns got stung 15 to 20 times a day.

[@carloscaylan7497]

I've heard that honey bees associate dark / black hair with bears, so that could be one thing. Also depends on the time of year too. When I worked at an apiary, I could relax close to the hives with my veil off during my breaks and be fine early in the season. They got more defensive as the nectar flow started, and eventually they'd constantly bump me for daring to exist near them towards the end of the season

[@MossyMozart]

@gankgoat8334 - Maybe you are just not all that sweet.

[@dylanbailey8464]

​@carloscaylan7497 from what my beekeeper friend tells me, they get cranky when the flowers start drying up and they have to work harder for food, kinda like people.

[@sleepymarauder4178]

​@@carloscaylan7497❤

[@agingerbeard]

Good things communist revolutions always fail 😅​@@dylanbailey8464

[@christianolivier4612]

Fascinating!! Awesome video!

[@annagizziatlas62]

I love that a joy for playing with balls is a cross-genus phenomenon.

[@neskey]

i'm now convinced that bee scientists don't know what a flower is

[@leopardcohen5182]

If only an individual person could live long enough to learn both what a bee is AND what a flower is😔

[@ruthlesslistener]

more like funding isnt good enough to bother lol

[@georgehodgson695]

I'm studying Horticulture at the moment and your comment made me laugh. I didn't even think of that 😂

[@AlexxForest]

I love how agresssively angry the "bees can count?!" bit sounds. Ze Frank at his finest.

[@chivalryspear1455]

Been watching your channel for a while. Always good content. But this video in particular is so good. Idk why. It's the perfect blend of how humor, and facts. I've never learned so much about something I originally didn't care about. 😂 I have so many fun facts to tell my friends now. Great job on the video! Keep it up!

[@P34chy5c0n3]

I love learning new fun facts and telling my family about them, been using your channel for that for 11 years now. I really love your content!

[@Jikkuryuu]

As a bit of a communication nerd, I got real excited about how bees perceive/express distance. They measure distance by how much change they see in the ground. They share distance by wiggling their butt for a period of time. That's the same medium! The same units! They're directly stimulating the same sense they use to measure in the first place. That's, well not _clever_ since they aren't thinking about it, but it's efficient!

[@georgehodgson695]

You just blew my mind. Again. for like the 10th time in the last 15 minutes. Life is absolutely wild

[@primesspct2]

Is that anything like when I go out and on a dance floor, but I don't know the dance and just shake my butt? No?? nothing like that?! Not at all?

[@huuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuhn]

I would argue that most humans get their feeling of distance in a similar way but they can also factor in time

[@edwardlulofs444]

From a mathematical perspective, there are no spheres nor circles in nature. But flowers often are circular in shape. I wonder if the bee is mistaking the ball for a flower. When a bee lands on a flower, it crawls around to gather pollen and nectar. Then the bee just tries to crawl around the ball thinking that it’s a flower and inadvertently causing it to roll…. Just my weird mind thinking….

[@Jikkuryuu]

@@edwardlulofs444 Following that logic, perhaps that behavior helps bees find the entrance to less-open flowers.

[@evalyer]

"From A to B to Bee to Bee" underrated dad joke.

[@lordfangar5671]

This episode was incredibly fascinating, i wish it went on for longer

[@lorihahn-brown4709]

Ze Frank! I haven’t seen one of your videos in ages. I’m glad to see you’re still around. You’re so entertaining and I love your voice!!!

[@thatirishasian]

“It looks like they bought into the metric system. Bullshit.” 😂

[@j.robertsergertson4513]

That poor bee ,flew three feet and found a shoe no wonder he wasn't happy dancing

[@orko714]

Maybe there was a ball in the shoe?

[@DissedRedEngie]

​@@orko714 nah she would've been buzzing if there was a ball. (mention for op, all worker bees are female)

[@daniellamcgee4251]

Bees like disco balls and bee bop.

[@ZenFr0g]

"I found a half dead tulip. It's okay I guess"

[@adamengelhart5159]

"So let me get this straight. You found a shoe." "Yes." "You're aware that we're bees, right?" "Yes." "And that means that we collect nectar and pollen from flowers, right?" "Yes." "So why are you telling us about a shoe? Is there a flower in the shoe or something?" "Well, no, but there's some drips from ice cream on one of the laces--" "Yeah, you can just keep that one to yourself."

[@denny8422]

I have loved this channel for years and each of your videos never fails to make my day 😭 thank you Frank for the many years of smiles

[@Ryanonthecouch]

I found this absolutely fascinating! I love how you deliver your content, making your video really fun to watch. But this one about the bees was singularly amazing!

[@Thetracker69]

This 11 minute video felt like 2 minutes. Man I never thought I'd bee so enraptured about bees.

[@h__r]

Can't imagine how you manage to come up with such hilarious and educational content so quickly. It's amazingly well made. Well done.

[@The_Crucible714]

He’s a smart-azzed beeyutch.

[@alysdexia]

⁠​⁠​⁠is not: Dr → Dr.; it, that → who; fast → swift[ly]; go and → go; nice < niais < nescius := not-skilled like he is → well; censors “crap”which is Latin for chaff and “ass” which is a beast; away from → froward; shouldn’t → ouhtn’t; less → lesser → fewer; will → shall →; try and (try _what?_ and) → try to.

[@CatatonicImperfect]

by sitting on top of really big people ...or something like that.

[@enzoqueijao]

​@@alysdexiaAre you having a stroke?

[@alysdexia]

@@enzoqueijao learn how to read, wit/2.

[@KittyPieVibes]

Im glad you’re still making videos

[@thetapperhatz_laboratories2574]

Aww, Bees. They don’t even know their getting farted out by Badgers.

[@LendriMujina]

1:42 Getting so engrossed in the solution that you completely forget what problem you were trying to solve in the first place... that's something I can really relate to.

[@fugithegreat]

About 6 months ago, one black wasp came and scouted out my kitchen then flew away. Now, for the past 6 months I keep getting a bunch of black wasps that fly right to the same corner of my kitchen, even though I'm pretty sure I kill most of them. So that means that this corner is part of their cultural knowledge or something. I don't know how long those wasps live for, but I like to imagine an old lady wasp scout just telling everyone she knows all about how awesome my kitchen is.

[@erinmac4750]

I could be wrong, but those black wasps sound like some that I had decide to nest the door of my 80's Mercedes when I hadn't taken it out for a few days. Knowing nothing about them and fearing everything, we zapped them with spray. Then we found out they were harmless and good pollinators. Sorry guys......

[@queenebil]

No don't kill them! Make an offering of something yummy outside so that they stop going to the kitchen.

[@CESmith]

We have black wasps nesting behind our outdoor thermometer clock every summer. Usually there's around 6 of them each summer. Never bothered us and they're nice to see.

[@DuchessofEarlGrey]

I remember reading the smell of mint is offputting for wasps. If there's a place you don't want them to nest in, dab some mint extract or oil around there. I did that once when they were trying to build a nest near my bat house.

[@fugithegreat]

@@erinmac4750 yeah I have another little colony of harmless pollinators living under my drain pipe outside, and we get along just fine. I wouldn't be killing these particular wasps so ruthlessly if they were harmless (and also I don't need wasps flying in and out of my kitchen all day), especially since I have students coming in my house all day and we don't need that stress 😂

[@bobhostetler7485]

Absolutely love your videos man! I remember when I first learned about bee math, I was so excited I literally told anyone that would listen.

[@FlawlesSanshiro]

Great job as always Ze Frank.

[@donavandwelch]

These should be played in every high school biology class. You rock

[@georgehodgson695]

Aye

[@detectivemuffler8083]

“Of course they’ll use a couple hundred thousand neurons on the flowers.” Yeah, better use than my couple hundred thousand neurons

[@AnAggressiveBean]

8 billion neurons infact

[@Moomoomanly]

tbf, with how many neurons humans have we probably use a couple hundred thousand on flowers

[@ReleasedHollow]

4 billion of my neurons are just dedicated to random trivia.

[@The_Crucible714]

Bee brain; _Size isn’t everything!_ 🧠

[@rapheAltoid77]

I work at a garden center. At least a couple hundred thousand of my neurons are dedicated to flowers this time of year. 😀

[@JoseyWeik]

Zefrank, you are one of my favorite creators. You have done so much to educate and entertain! Much love.

[@nickluck4100]

Thank you for finally uploading something adorable instead of existentially horrifying.

[@mdbee5]

Jerry must have done a good job, not one call out. Maybe he's the same Jerry in the Bee movie and that's why he wrote such a great script.

[@chocolemonade]

If the Jerry of True Facts turned out to actually be Jerry Seinfeld, that would be the real mic drop

[@neelcashyap7879]

Zoology was never so interesting until I listen to this guy...

[@SiiriCressey]

Yeah! Humor can make things interesting. Too bad so much of formal western traditional education seems to ignore that.

[@kR-qj7rw]

Nah it always was Humor is a great hook but really either you have it in you or you don't to be interested on x theme

[@PsychedelicChameleon]

Thank You ZeFrank, this is so good!

[@aaronmckee3236]

I get so happy every time I see that you released a new video