bbc 4 now

[mexbigshow]

jimmy and the wild honey hunters in nepal

 

[Suzi Q]

Thanks.. just caught it, fantastic!

 

[will]

Sorry mex didn,t see your post

 

[mexbigshow]

i saw it the 1st time round on bbc2 it was great to watch the nepalese people collecting the honey [ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0DyWs-Y-pkA"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0DyWs-Y-pkA[/ame]

 

[mexbigshow]

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HdtV9il-NKg&feature=related"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HdtV9il-NKg&feature=related[/ame]

 

[Andy Duff]

Big bees, big comb, big cliff, big hornets.

 

[Firefly]

Available on iplayer. Downloading now

 

[rockdoc]

Having seen it the first time round, I was left wondering why so much comb was left at the base of the cliff. I assumed they would melt it down as we do for light/heat etc. Any thoughts?

 

[mexbigshow]

maybe tradition rockdoc, some kind of offering to nature or the gods not too sure what the nepalese believe in

 

[drstitson]

Probably down to closed shop - no overlap between nepalese union of honey gatherers and nepalese wax chandler federation.

Or perhaps it's down to the lack of a local "Stoneleigh" equivalent to take the wax to for exchange (and anyway - what are they going to do with a big pile of pristine BS wired foundation).

 

[Firefly]

Probably down to closed shop - no overlap between nepalese union of honey gatherers and nepalese wax chandler federation.

Or perhaps it's down to the lack of a local "Stoneleigh" equivalent to take the wax to for exchange (and anyway - what are they going to do with a big pile of pristine BS wired foundation).

May be truer than you think. I found some references to working with beeswax being something undertaken by the lower "castes", whereas I think the head honey collector is verging on a holy man. Maybe they come collect it later, like the the municipal collector

 

[Suzi Q]

I wonder if it would be possible to keep that species of bees in a hive, a large one!

 

[drstitson]

I would imagine that PH would call on his offshore friends to rig (excuse the pun) up a harvesting apparatus using oilfield technology.

 

[Swarm]

He went all the way to Nepal for Himalayan Balsam honey

 

[Ross]

And we think beekeeping in the UK can be challenging. I moan about collecting my supers from the top of a big hill and lugging them back to the van. Those guys are nuts!

 

[Firefly]

I found this a very frustrating problem. The photography - macro and micro - was fantastic; the bees are amazing; the people are awesome; Jamie's a nice guy with good intentions. But

• we were given enough hints about the natural history of those bees to know that they must be fascinating, without even the most basic summary of their life cycle
• we saw an indigenous people obviously in the middle of enormous economic and social change - again without any attempt to orient us about what is going on or any detail of how the honey harvest fits in to their society. I felt slightly embarrassed about how those dignified people were portrayed
• the fluffy stuff at the beginning and end about how bees pollinate everything in the garden and we should all love them was pretty trite and light on science; included (and compounded) the usual confusion between honey bees and bumbles; there was too little time to do this properly - it was really a separate programme and the Nepal adventure did not need it as bookends
• Jamie's inner musings never let a cliché go unturned
• His approach to protective clothing (in Suffolk, not Nepal) is his own business, but I'm not sure it should be broadcast without a "don't try this at home, children" - to say nothing of his choice of location for honey extraction!

 

[Hivemaker.]

Jamie's a nice guy with good intentions.

Is that his real name,i thought it was Jimmy,and his buddy is Jamie Oliver.

 

[The Cumbrian]

• we were given enough hints about the natural history of those bees to know that they must be fascinating, without even the most basic summary of their life cycle
  

I think I have got it right that the bees were Apis dorsata/laboriosa and a quick google shows quite a lot of pages.

Yes I know that doesn't replace having covered it in the film but they probably assumed much of the natural history would be for a niche interest rather than the general public.

 

[jakethedog]

but they probably assumed much of the natural history would be for a niche interest rather than the general public.

this is the thing with these one off tv documentaries, they're never going to be indepth enough for the people who already have some level of involvement with the subject matter. That said it shouldn't detract from the general interest value to everyone else.

I often find myself watching programmes about space and coming away thinking 'how interesting' whilst someone with poggles level of astronomical knowledge might just think 'that's nothing new, not very interesting'.

 

[Firefly]

I think I have got it right that the bees were Apis dorsata/laboriosa and a quick google shows quite a lot of pages.

Yes I know that doesn't replace having covered it in the film but they probably assumed much of the natural history would be for a niche interest rather than the general public.

I was watching with my wife. They mentioned that the guys do the harvest just before the bees migrate somewhere else for the winter. The idea of migrating bees made her immediately prick her ears up (me too!) and was closely followed by the question "So why not do the harvest after they have gone?". Presumably the bees consume some/all of the honey prior to migration, or it cools so much it cannot be extracted...or something. But that was just left as a loose end