Secrets of the Bees (2026) s01e01 Episode Script

You hear them
before you see them.
Buzzing around the garden.
Hovering over the flowers.
Bees.
Wow!
So much honey!
But what if I told you bees
could be the most important
animals on the planet?
Oh, you are beautiful!
I’m cinematographer and
National Geographic Explorer,
Bertie Gregory.
Hello everyone!
For three years,
our crews have used
special cameras to uncover
the hidden world
behind the buzz.
A world of impossible
architecture,
extraordinary intelligence.
Push, push, push.
Oh my gosh, yes!
And secret dances.
That is a waggle.
Now I wonder what
they're saying?
Bees are more than
just honey-makers.
More than stingers.
More than we ever imagined.
Poor bees, they're just getting
soaked, huddling together,
desperately trying to keep warm.
There are over 20,000
species of bees.
And together, they pollinate
a third of the food we eat.
So come closer.
The bees will reveal
their secrets.
In the grip of winter,
this hive seems abandoned.
But deep inside, a secret
world few have ever seen.
A family of honeybees
huddled for warmth.
For months, they've lived on
honey made from the nectar of
last summer's flowers.
Producing it took the
sacrifice of thousands.
And in just a few short weeks,
they'll have to do
it all over again.
When temperatures
outside reach 50 degrees,
the hive comes alive.
And the first new bee of
the year is ready to emerge.
Let's call her Worker Bee 1.
Like all worker bees,
she's female.
Males are born
later in the season.
What makes her a bee,
and different from the millions
of other flying insects,
are the thousands of
tiny feathered hairs
covering her body.
They're even on her eyes.
These hairs are how
she'll collect pollen.
But not for a few weeks.
Right now, she's hungry,
and kind of clueless.
At a day old, Worker Bee 1
is completely reliant on
her older sisters.
This isn't just
food she's sucking in.
But a protein-rich liquid
infused with pheromones.
A chemical instruction
to make her think and
act like her sisters.
Now, she knows how to be a bee,
and what her role is in this
extraordinary superorganism.
You know, I've spent a good
chunk of my life going to
far-flung places to
film big animals.
And if I'm honest,
I've overlooked the bees.
But that was a mistake,
because, despite their size,
they might just be the most
important animals on the planet.
One in every three bites
of food we eat is pollinated
by a bee.
And there is just as much
drama in a bee hive,
than on any African savannah.
Hello, my buzzy friends!
It's all good!
Let's see how you're doing.
Well, you all
seem pretty chill,
so I'm gonna take my hood off.
Whoa, that's better.
Look at this one here.
Little newborn bee!
Go on, you can do it.
Yes! Good job!
Look at that.
Her first steps as an adult bee.
Oh, you are beautiful.
Hello.
And I'm not afraid because
for the first day of their life,
they can't sting.
So you're gonna be a
friendly bee, aren't you?
Well, it's so good
to see a baby bee,
that means the
colony's growing,
and they need the numbers.
This family has a lot to do.
From raising 60,000 new
bees to collecting nectar
from millions of flowers.
All to make the 40 pounds of
honey they need for winter.
See you later, everyone,
good luck!
And the clock starts now.
The key to the entire operation
comes down to just one bee.
The largest, longest-lived,
and most revered bee
in the family
The queen.
Mother to everyone in the hive.
Her job is to lay eggs.
She glues one to the
bottom of a cell.
Then, moves onto the next.
Egg, glue, move on, repeat.
2,000 times a day.
She could live five years,
doing nothing, but laying eggs.
No time to rest.
No time to raise her babies.
That job is left to
Bee 1 and her sisters.
They feed the larvae around
the clock with a soup of
high-protein pollen,
collected from flowers.
In just a week, the babies
grow 1,000 times bigger.
And are then tucked
into their cells,
ready for their radical
transformation into adults.
So extraordinary,
yet rarely witnessed.
When this generation emerges,
they'll take over nursery duty.
Leaving Bee 1 and her wave
of sisters to move on to other
important jobs in the hive.
Working together is at the
heart of honeybee society.
But most bees have
to go it alone.
Solitary, like this
red-tailed mason bee.
A little bee, with
some unique talents.
She's on a quest to find a
place to lay her first egg.
But only one kind
of nest will do.
An empty snail shell.
This one's too small.
Nope.
Ugh, no chance!
Could this be the one?
Perfect!
Next, she gathers pollen,
food for when her
youngster hatches.
It also becomes
a bed for her egg.
But the pollen attracts
a gang of red ants.
Her baby's future is at stake.
But this time, big jaws
trump smaller ones.
Nursery secure, for now.
But the shell's at
the wrong angle!
Rain could flood the entrance.
She can't let that happen.
By excavating the
soil around her shell,
she creates the
space to flip it.
And settles it into the ground.
But there's one final problem
to solve, how to hide the shell.
And the way she does that
has earned her the nickname.
The Broomstick bee!
Like a mini Harry Potter,
she carries stick after
stick back to her shell.
This one's a little ambitious!
She's smart enough to
use the world around her.
Weaving an impenetrable
fortress with hundreds of
sticks to perfectly
camouflage her nest and protect
her precious egg.
Once complete, she buzzes off.
But before the season's up,
she'll build at least
20 more nests.
A big job for one little bee.
As summer draws near,
our honey bee population
has nearly doubled.
They need more space.
So young Bee 1 is assigned to
the honeycomb construction crew.
With the lower walls complete,
her job is to build up.
Using her sisters as
a living scaffold.
She can climb
anywhere in the hive.
And she's come prepared with
tiny discs of wax made by
special glands on her body.
Bees are the only animals to
use wax as a building material,
and they shape it
into one of the wonders
of animal architecture.
The six-sided bee cell.
It's an engineering marvel.
Incredibly strong,
yet almost weightless.
The perfect space-saving
shape that uses the least
amount of wax.
The hive needs
200,000 new cells,
as cradles for every new bee,
and to store their
precious honey.
The future of the
family depends on it.
But their growing stores,
are bound to attract trouble.
So, to keep out thieves,
Bee 1 is now assigned
to be a bouncer.
Every bee in the
hive smells the same.
Their scent is an
"all-access" passcode.
Those that don't
belong smell different.
And wasps are real stinkers.
These wanna-bees will do
all they can to sneak inside
and steal the honey.
Just not on her watch.
In the mountain
forests of Japan,
the Asian honeybee faces a
much more frightening foe.
Giant hornets,
wasps on steroids!
Known by some as murder hornets.
Because that is what they do.
A nearby hive is
in the firing line.
The honeybee's first
line of defense,
is the bee equivalent
of a stadium wave.
Designed to be a
show of strength.
But it's not scaring the hornet.
The bees retreat and regroup.
Luckily, the entrance is
too narrow for the giant.
Those inside are safe.
But this is just a scout,
gathering intelligence.
The hornet marks the hive
with a chemical scent
that will guide her and
her clan right back.
The bees need to get
rid of the smell, fast.
And what they do
next is astonishing.
Workers race to collect
fragrant leaves to mask
the hornet's scent.
This extraordinary behavior
is a rare example of tool use.
The bees work quickly.
But not fast enough.
The hornet's back!
With her sisters.
Hornets eat adult bees.
But what they're really after,
are the thousands
of larvae inside.
And together,
they slice their way in.
The bees' only hope for
survival is to respond as one.
Hold
Now!
The bees vibrate
their wings together to
generate extreme heat.
The temperature in the
center reaches 115 degrees.
Hot enough to fry a hornet.
The next invader gets
the same treatment.
Their collective action has
achieved the near impossible
and saved the colony.
But the abilities of
an individual bee can be
just as impressive.
Dr. Sammy Ramsey is one
of the most influential
bee scientists in the world.
Bees are amongst
the most intelligent insects
on the planet.
Their brain is about
the size of a pinhead,
but it's packed with these
neurons that are specifically
structured for learning.
Sammy has come to
Queen Mary University of London
to see firsthand a remarkable
breakthrough that looks inside
the mind of a bee.
The bumblebee lab
is at the forefront of
understanding bee intelligence.
We know that these--
Dr. Alice Bridges is
showing Sammy an experiment,
one that surprised the
scientific community.
Go, go!
Alright, she's in!
Set loose
in the chamber,
these bumblebees have a choice,
make a beeline for the food,
or stop and play
with wooden balls.
There's no real
reward on this side.
There's no source of food.
There's just the option to play.
Yeah, bees are pretty
reward-driven animals, like,
they always want
to get more food,
and yet we see here that
they chose to play instead.
When we think of play,
we think of bears and
lion cubs and puppies.
Insects are not the
creatures that you would
normally think of.
This study is extraordinary
because it's the first time
that play has been
demonstrated in insects.
Play is something that's seen
as a means of practicing for
the sorts of skills that you'll
need more broadly in life.
Exactly!
Bees, especially
these bumblebees,
are gonna be handling so many
different types of flowers.
Perhaps this is a way that they
can refine those skills before
leaving the hive.
But there’s another
test that reveals even more
about bumblebee intelligence.
A lot of our
experiments that we do here,
we design tasks as kind of
these artificial flowers.
Ah!
We put on this yellow
target here, sugary water,
they go crazy for this!
But ah, they can't get to it,
because, because of the lid.
They have to do a series
of two behaviors,
so they have to move
the blue door first.
Oh, wow.
Push that out of
the way, and then.
And then the red one.
I don't think a lot of people
would have expected a bee to be
able to solve this.
For the experiment to
work, one bee has to be trained.
Does someone in here
know what they're doing?
Yep, we have a bee
already trained, um,
number 75, if
you can see her?
75, Oh, yeah, there she goes.
There you go.
Oh, she's motivated.
Oh, she's going
straight for the--
She's hopefully gonna
show us what we've taught her.
Okay, so she has to
move the blue door first,
then the red one.
You're going for the red.
Come on.
They always give it
a little go, just in case.
Yeah, just in case.
Okay, but no, it looks
like she's figured it out.
Come on,
she knows what to do.
Come on, come on,
push, push, push, yes.
Yes.
Go 75, you got this.
Come on, 75.
We are rooting for you.
There it goes!
Keep pushing.
Come on, ooh!
Oh-ho!
Doing one thing to
get there would be the
single order thinking,
but the second order
thinking is I have to move this
in order to move that.
They're able to see farther
into the future than just
the immediate future.
It’s really quite remarkable.
The really cool thing
about this experiment is that
if we leave her in here for
long enough with the box,
with the other bees,
they'll be able to
learn how to open the box
with no training at all,
just from observing her.
But have the
untrained bee students
been paying attention?
We've got
another bee here who might have
sort of started to
figure out what's going on,
she's following behind.
Are you serious?
That quickly?
Yeah!
Can you push that?
Come on.
Oh my gosh!
What a good bee!
Okay, there's one more
step in this process.
Push, push, push, push.
- Come on! Come on!
- Success!
The way that these insects
have had to think their way
around problems forces
us to think differently,
because they are a lot
more intelligent and aware
than we've given them credit.
A bee's
problem-solving skills are
vital in their daily lives.
Especially when gathering
food, like pollen.
And few do it quite like
the buff-tailed bumblebee.
This flower tucks its
pollen away in tubular petals
hard to reach.
So she becomes a jackhammer.
Buzzing at up to 400
vibrations per second,
blasting the hidden
pollen loose.
Where she catches it
on her hairy belly.
But unlocking this
treasure takes practice,
as this first timer discovers.
Whoops!
She's nailed the
loosening bit at least.
Like any new skill, success
comes from trial and error.
Yeah, there you go!
The bee now uses her legs
to brush the pollen grains
down her body.
Next, she does
something remarkable and
never filmed before.
To stop the pollen
blowing off in flight,
she adds a drop of nectar,
passed to her back legs,
to glue the grains into a
solid packet for travel.
Back at the hive,
summer is in full swing.
Inside, Bee 1 has
finally been promoted to
the worker's top job.
Her new mission,
collect pollen and the raw
ingredient for honey
Nectar!
But where to get it?
As usual, she turns
to an older sister,
introducing the waggle dance.
It's how honeybees
talk to each other.
These groovy moves tell
others not just where to
find the best nectar,
but the angle to take
when leaving the hive.
How far away it is.
And even any detours
along the way.
It’s a bee’s GPS!
The 'beeline' the most
direct path to the nectar.
Message received.
But leaving the hive
is a risky business,
especially when
it's your first time.
There's good reason
for her to be hesitant.
Nearly half of all new foragers
never see their family again.
One of the biggest
dangers is getting lost.
So, on take-off,
Bee 1 faces the hive.
Then, makes a mental note
of the landmarks around it.
Whoops!
Once she's locked in
the view, she's off.
The trip could take her
two miles from home.
With pitstops at
thousands of flowers.
In her lifetime, she'll gather
less than a teaspoon of nectar.
But every drop is
vital to the family.
Not everything the
flower hides is sweet.
A crab spider.
For Bee 1, it's hard to
separate petal from predator.
But then she's never
seen a spider before.
Lucky for her, this crab
spider isn't hungry.
But some sisters
aren't so fortunate.
Next stop pollen.
The powdery grains
plants use to reproduce,
and a vital bee food.
The little pollen grains
stick to her hairs.
Some will drop off
on different flowers.
Seeding them as she goes.
This is the way bees
pollinate three-quarters of
all flowering plants.
A partnership that dates back
to the age of the dinosaurs.
Loaded with food,
she heads for home.
But when your cargo of nectar
and pollen doubles your weight,
it can make touchdowns,
well, tricky.
Inside, Bee 1 unloads
her baskets of pollen.
It'll be used later
to feed the larvae.
Then, she passes her
nectar to a sister.
But this isn't food sharing,
it's the recipe
for making honey.
With each transfer,
the sisters add enzymes
that break down the nectar
to make it edible.
The workers then store
this sugar solution in cells.
But there's one final step.
Beating their wings
at 170 times a second.
The sisters fan the mixture
to evaporate the water.
And after three fantastic days,
the transformation is complete.
Nectar has become liquid gold.
Honey!
It takes 2 million flowers to
make just one pound of honey.
The sisters will need 40 times
that to see them through winter.
And they're only halfway there.
For some bees, just finding
nectar is the hardest part.
In the Amazon jungle,
flowers are less
common than you'd think.
So firebees have a plan B.
Sap-sucking treehoppers!
But the bees don't eat
the little suckers.
They farm them!
Tree hoppers excrete a sugary
substance called honeydew,
similar to nectar.
And they're willing
to trade it
for protection
from their enemies,
like assassin bugs.
Now, to claim the reward.
But there's no payment
without a little tickling.
Who needs flowers,
when getting food is
like turning on a tap?
But there's a catch,
honeydew is too heavy
to fly with,
so the firebees must
lighten the load.
Unlike honeybees,
they let the sun's
heat evaporate the water,
and concentrate it
into a sugary syrup that's
light enough to carry home.
Firebees are not the
only ones who've had to adapt
to a scarcity of nectar.
There's one bee in this jungle
that's taken its diet in a
whole new direction.
Vulture bees, the
world's most unusual bee.
Like their namesake, they
have a taste for the dead.
And their sense of smell is
so acute they can sniff out
their food from
half a mile away.
A rancid fish.
This is the only bee that
relies on rotting flesh.
She may have found
the fish first,
but you can always rely on a
fly to muscle in on a free meal.
Finders keepers
doesn't work here.
But she is a bee with attitude!
Willing to go jaw to jaw
with even the
roughest-looking diners.
Luckily, her sisters appear and
help to see off the competition.
Just like real vultures,
these bees are the
ultimate clean-up crew.
And amazingly, they can
even turn this digested
meat into honey.
The sisterhood is having
a successful summer.
They've filled more than
half their honey cells.
But it's come at a cost.
Our Bee 1, the year's first
arrival has given it her all.
Being a worker, her life
was sweet but short.
To stop the spread of disease,
fallen sisters must be removed.
But, for some, letting
go can be hard.
Bee 1 isn't the only casualty.
Hundreds of sisters
die every day.
And yet, the colony has
ballooned to over 60,000.
A population boom that
triggers the most dramatic event
in the family's life.
It's the signal for the
queen to leave the hive and
start a new colony.
Many of her daughters
must follow.
But, before they leave,
they feast on the
hard-won stores.
It could be days before
they'll feed again.
We don't yet understand
what makes one bee leave
and another stay.
But soon, hundreds, then
thousands, join the queen.
Half the colony.
It's how honeybees
colonize new locations.
30,000 now take to
the air in a swarm.
Their first task is to
set up a temporary base.
Scouts will set off from here
to look for a permanent home.
And that makes it a perfect
time for me to check in.
Hello everyone!
You are looking very beautiful.
So many bees!
It's just this massive
living structure.
And buried deep down in
the center is the Queen,
with all the other workers
gathering around her.
Just the most amazing
thing to look at.
It looks pretty intimidating;
there's a lot of stinging power
right there, but,
oh, right on my lip.
Please don't go in my mouth!
See, it's a common
misconception that
when bees are swarming,
they're always
very angry and aggressive.
But they don't have any
honey or brood to defend,
so they're really kind of
preoccupied at the moment.
I'm just part of the landscape.
So, this is a great opportunity
to film them up close.
The ones at the top,
holding onto the branch,
are doing the heavy lifting.
But every bee in the swarm
plays a part by holding tight
to her sisters.
Wow.
And tonight, it looks as
if they'll have to hold on
tighter than ever.
I think rain’s coming.
It's the last thing the
vulnerable family needs.
It is pouring!
Poor bees, they’re
just getting soaked.
With nothing to shield them,
the entire colony could
die from the cold.
They’re huddling together,
desperately trying to get warm.
But even now, the
bees work together.
They rotate their
positions to take their
turn out in the elements.
But if it keeps
raining like this,
they won't survive the night.
There's nothing I
can do but hope they'll
make it till morning.
Back at the hive,
things look just as bleak.
They've lost their queen
and half their workers.
Honey supplies are down,
and winter is
just four months away.