Original subtitles

CHARLIE: Hey, guys! Charlie here, you know my sister, Kirby.

KIRBY: Hey!

CHARLIE (off-screen): Today, we're hanging out in our hometown,

Chicago with hundreds of thousands of honeybees.

KIRBY: Did you know that honeybees can recognize human faces?

CHARLIE: Or that the queen bee can lay over 1,000 eggs a day?

KIRBY: Smoker's goin'!

CHARLIE: It's time for Weird But True !

This is almost the prettiest garden even gardened.

KIRBY: I don't know what I'm doing wrong!

CHARLIE: Hey guys!

KIRBY: Hey! I'm glad you're here.

I basically have the world's greatest garden.

CHARLIE: Basically, but not quite.

KIRBY: I'm having trouble with one particular area.

And it's driving me crazy!

KIRBY (off-screen): I've grown lettuce, big puffy flowers,

small colorful flowers.

Basically everything you could ever want.

It's incredible.

Everything except fruit.

KIRBY (off-screen): Its like no matter how hard I try I can't grow fruits.

What's going on?

CHARLIE: Kirb. Where are the pollinators?

KIRBY: The what?

CHARLIE: The pollinators, like the honeybees?

KIRBY: Charles, do you wanna get stung or something?

No bees allowed.

CHARLIE: You need pollinators, especially honeybees,

to get fruits.

KIRBY (off-screen): I've done everything else by myself.

So why would I wanna rely on stinging little pests

to get me fruit?

CHARLIE: First off, they're not gonna sting you.

Second off, I'm telling you Kirb,

you can't live without bees.

They're super pollinators.

I'll tell you all about it, because today,

we're unraveling the world of.

CHARLIE (off-screen): Bees!

KIRBY (off-screen): Bees!

Charles, this is a kamikaze mission.

We're gonna get stung.

CHARLIE: You don't have to worry about that Kirb.

KIRBY: Ok yeah? Tell me why.

CHARLIE: Because bees aren't the angry stingers that you

think they are.

There are a whole bunch of players in the pollination

game that you're confusing them with.

Welcome back sports fans.

Chip Shivers, alongside Bob Frost.

KIRBY: Pleasure to be here Chip.

CHARLIE: Pleasure to have you Bob.

Today, everybody's talking who's gonna win this year's

Pollinator League MVP, Bob?

KIRBY: You know, Chip, it's blasphemous we're still having

this conversation.

The undeniable best pollinator in the league is the honeybee.

CHARLIE: I agree Bob.

Let's break down our players.

CHARLIE (off-screen): Wasps versus bees.

Bees are fuzzy and plump.

Wasps are hairless and skinny.

The bees use their fuzzy hairs and plump bodies

to collect pollen and.

Boom shakalaka!

We got pollen in the hive!

KIRBY: They call 'em the clumsy carpenter because.

CHARLIE: They drop the hammer.

KIRBY: Now check this out.

Same game, across the garden.

KIRBY (off-screen): Now most wasps don't seek out pollen,

they're insectivores, which means they eat other insects.

Whoa! That one cost him five minutes in the penalty box.

CHARLIE: They call 'em week old leftovers because.

KIRBY: They're disgusting.

CHARLIE: You know Bob, it seems like this season wasps

have been playing very emotionally.

KIRBY: It's egregious, Chip.

CHARLIE (off-screen): Some wasps are very aggressive.

They might sting animals over and over and over.

But bees are much less aggressive.

They will only sting if the hive is in danger.

That's it for today. Chip Shivers.

KIRBY: Bob Frost.

CHARLIE: Catch ya next time.

KIRBY: So it sounds like bees, the fuzzy ones,

aren't the mean ones.

CHARLIE: Correct.

KIRBY: Cool, they're nice.

But why do I need them to make fruit?

CHARLIE: Well, bees collect pollen to make stuff like honey.

And when they do that, they're pollinating your flowers.

It's all right in here.

CHARLIE (off-screen): A worker bee lands on a flower and it

collects pollen from this part the anther.

Then, it flies to another flower to collect more and

deposits some of that pollen, from the first plant,

right here, on the stigma.

Where it forms a seed and eventually a fruit!

This needs to happen for fruit to grow.

If there's no transfer of pollen, there's no seed,

no fruit, and one sad Kirby.

That's what's going on in your garden.

KIRBY: I mean that sounds pretty easy.

I just need to transfer pollen between flowers.

All I need is like a cotton swab.

KIRBY (off-screen): How hard could it be?

CHARLIE: It's very hard.

KIRBY: Doubt it, a tiny little insect can do it.

CHARLIE: Kirb, it's almost like these bees have

pollination superpowers.

CHARLIE (off-screen): Bees are tiny,

but they can collect pollen as far as six miles from the hive.

One honeybee pollinates thousands of flowers a day.

And they don't need a lot of food to make the trip.

It would only take one ounce of honey to fuel a bee's

flight around the entire world.

That's this much.

This is all the fuel that a honeybee needs to travel

completely around the world.

KIRBY: That's crazy! CHARLIE: Yeah.

KIRBY: Well where the heck are they then?

CHARLIE: Ugh. About that.

KIRBY (off-screen): What? They're disappearing?

CHARLIE: Like crazy. KIRBY: Since when?

CHARLIE: Since, for a long time.

Let me take you back like a gazillion years ago,

to the 1940s.

MAN (off-screen): Extra! Extra!

CHARLIE (off-screen): The 1947 bee count is in.

There are six million managed beehives in the United States.

Dig it.

The 1970 bee count is down to four million.

U.S. bees vanish without a trace.

From Weird but True world headquarters in Chicago.

This is Earth News Tonight with Charlie.

Good evening.

We begin tonight with a 2016 bee count.

We're down to just 2.5 million hives.

Where are the bees?

Joining us to answer that question is a scientist.

You look like my sister.

KIRBY: You look like my brother.

CHARLIE: Hmm. KIRBY: Hmm.

We theorize these losses are due to mite infestation

pesticide usage, or natural forage loss.

CHARLIE: Do you have a name for this phenomenon?

KIRBY: Well in some cases, bees are disappearing quickly,

seemingly at random, and in catastrophic numbers.

So we've decided to name it Colony Collapse Disorder,

or CCD.

Whoa, Colony Collapse Disorder.

CHARLIE: Yeah, entire hives are disappearing all across the country.

KIRBY: My garden's a goner without the bees!

We gotta do something!

CHARLIE: Yeah, but like what?

KIRBY: I guess if the bees won't come here on their own,

we gotta bring them here ourselves.

CHARLIE: What?

KIRBY: I need to become a beekeeper.

And I know exactly who to call! Jana Kinsman!

She's an urban beekeeper and she's right here in Chicago!

CHARLIE: Cool, cool! Let's go!

CHARLIE (off-screen): We're off to learn beekeeping 101 at

Bike A Bee.

And to get there we don't have to go far.

Illinois is home to 500 species of bees.

And they don't all live out in the countryside.

KIRBY (off-screen): Weird but true.

CHARLIE: Hey, Guys, we made it!

KIRBY: Yup, took us like 20 minutes to get here.

CHARLIE: We're here to meet up with Jana Kinsman.

She's a professional beekeeper.

KIRBY: And her bees aren't in some garden or forest or something.

They're here in the south side of Chicago.

CHARLIE: They're actually on the roof!

Of this building. What do you think Kirb?

Take the stairs?

KIRBY: Nah.

CHARLIE (off-screen): Meet Jana Kinsman,

founder of Bike A Bee.

She visits her beehives all over Chicago by bicycle.

So she can help keep the city green.

Her favorite weird but true fact is.

JANA: Over 90% of a honeybee colony is female.

CHARLIE: It's nice to meet ya!

JANA: Hey! Nice to meet you guys!

KIRBY: Nice to meet you.

CHARLIE: Here's the situation. JANA: Ok.

CHARLIE: We're trying to attract some bees to Kirby's

garden because there are no pollinators here.

And apparently you're the person to talk to about bees, right?

JANA: That's correct.

CHARLIE (off-screen): All right, here's my main question.

We're right outside Chicago on the roof a building and

you keep bees here?

JANA: I do.

CHARLIE: Sounds like entirely, kind of, counterintuitive.

JANA: You'd think that, right?

JANA (off-screen): I wanted to keep bees, but I didn't have a backyard.

So my friends gave me space on the roof to keep my bees and

there's a ton of diversity here.

KIRBY: What do we do when bees are coming at us and I get scared?

JANA: Don't be scared. Be relaxed.

We also go very slow while we're in the hive and for the

most part it's just a very relaxing experience.

CHARLIE: So calm and don't freak out and the bees will

respect you if you respect them.

JANA: Exactly.

CHARLIE: I'm sure you like deck yourself out in those

giant bee suits, right?

JANA: No. I wear this.

And I wear only a veil to protect my face.

CHARLIE: Just in case. JANA: Just in case.

CHARLIE (off-screen): That's it?

JANA: Yeah.

CHARLIE (off-screen): To securely fasten our

veils we wear baseball caps,

pop our collars, and tie the straps around our bodies to

create a seal that's bee proof.

JANA: Ta-da! CHARLIE: All right.

CHARLIE (off-screen): Before we head over to the hive,

Jana explains all the tools we need to know.

First up the smoker.

Which I don't really get the point of.

What does it do?

Does it just make the bees kind of sleepy? Or what?

JANA: Bees typically lived in hollowed out old trees so if

the bees sensed smoke they just filled themselves up with

honey and then once the tree actually caught on fire

they would leave.

CHARLIE: So it's like they're packing up.

JANA: Yeah, yeah. CHARLIE: Getting ready to go.

JANA: Yeah, they're just packing up to go.

So what's great about the smoker is that it, of course,

doesn't light the hive on fire.

It just kind of tricks them into eating honey quickly so

that we can go in and safely see what's going on.

CHARLIE: All right cool.

CHARLIE (off-screen): Each smoker is built to house a

small internal fire that can be fueled by waste like

newspapers or egg cartons.

A quick strike of the match and.

JANA (off-screen): Smoker's ready to go.

And then I have my hive tool to get the hive open

and my bee brush.

KIRBY: That's it. JANA: Just in case.

Those are all my tools.

KIRBY: Amazing.

CHARLIE: Let's go see the bees!

CHARLIE (off-screen): So these are your bees.

JANA (off-screen): Yup.

CHARLIE (off-screen): Kirb, how you feeling?

There are bees all over us right now.

KIRBY: I feel fine.

CHARLIE: I feel calm. KIRBY: Relaxed.

CHARLIE: Relaxed. Respect the bees.

KIRBY: They'll respect you.

CHARLIE: All right, let's dive in.

JANA: All right. KIRBY: Let's take a peak.

JANA: So we're gonna take our smoker and just give 'em a

little bit of puff on the front,

which is where they're coming and going from.

JANA (off-screen): Knock, knock!

KIRBY: It's their doorbell. Knock, knock!

JANA: I'm gonna put a little bit of smoke underneath the

top here as well.

KIRBY (off-screen): Bees!

CHARLIE: Wow!

KIRBY: Whoa.

JANA: So I'm using my tool to get this frame out carefully.

Moving slowly and evenly.

KIRBY (off-screen): Oh that's so cool!

CHARLIE (off-screen): Oh man!

KIRBY (off-screen): Look how many bees there are!

JANA: So most of the bees that you see are worker bees.

And some of the bees, like this big fat guy right here,

this is a drone.

CHARLIE: So different bees have different jobs.

We have some friends who can help us learn about this

just a bit more.

Well, hi there!

KIRBY: Welcome to Honeybee Job Services,

we work for the hive now, and we're so excited you wanna

work here, too!

CHARLIE: We employ a lot of bees.

Each hive holds 50,000 worker bees, 300 drones,

and one wonderful queen.

KIRBY: Does being a worker bee interest you?

CHARLIE: It's so fun.

They work for every second of their entire lives,

slowly rising up the ranks.

CHARLIE (off-screen): These are the female bees.

When they hatch they get right to work cleaning their combs.

Then they're brood nurses, responsible for feeding the

9,000 larva, 1,300 times a day, each!

Next they go into construction,

building the hive.

Join the army and defend the entryway.

And if they're good workers, they finally become foragers,

gathering pollen and carrying water to the hive!

KIRBY: The work never stops.

CHARLIE: Ever. KIRBY: Too much?

CHARLIE: Looking for something a bit easier?

KIRBY: Maybe being a drone is the right job for you.

KIRBY (off-screen): These are the male bees.

They mate with the queen and do absolutely nothing else.

It's a breeze, oh but be careful, in the winter,

drones aren't needed, so the worker bees kick them

out of the hive.

KIRBY: Oh my.

CHARLIE: Get out of here, you lazy bees!

KIRBY: Bye-bye! CHARLIE: Too dangerous?

KIRBY: Looking for something a bit more plush?

CHARLIE: I hear that the hive next door is looking

for a queen bee.

CHARLIE (off-screen): Being a queen is great.

Everyone else works for you.

All you have to do is lay your own weight in eggs every

couple of hours, about 1,000 eggs every single day.

So fun!

KIRBY: So many eggs!

CHARLIE: Like any job, I guess it has its pluses and minuses.

KIRBY: Well, once you decide, just drop an application in our mailbox!

CHARLIE: Thanks so much for stopping by!

JANA: I wanna see if we can find the queen.

She has a much longer abdomen.

She's very orange.

JANA (off-screen): She doesn't have too much black on her.

KIRBY: She's there! JANA: Oh I see her.

KIRBY: Look at her, she's huge!

CHARLIE (off-screen): What? Ooh.

JANA (off-screen): She's huge.

KIRBY (off-screen): She looks completely different than everyone.

This hive is super busy because it still

has a lot of honey left to make.

So we head downstairs to grab some honeycombs that Jana says

are ready to harvest.

CHARLIE: So an hour ago I probably wouldn't have walked

up to these hives without thinking twice.

And now we're shaking bees off their own honey.

CHARLIE (off-screen): This is pretty awesome.

One firm shake?

JANA (off-screen): Yup.

CHARLIE (off-screen): Ugh.

JANA (off-screen): You did it!

CHARLIE: Then we brush the rest off?

KIRBY (off-screen): Bye guys.

JANA: So I think we should bring this honey upstairs and extract it.

KIRBY: Yeah!

CHARLIE: Let's do it. KIRBY: Let's do it.

JANA: Each of you guys gets a capping scratcher,

which is the tool that we'll use to remove the caps.

CHARLIE: Capping scratcher.

CHARLIE (off-screen): After bees convert the nectar they

gather into honey they seal it up to protect it with a thin

wax covering called a cap.

JANA: So with your frame of honey,

take your capping scratcher and put it slightly under the

caps and then pop 'em off.

Like that.

CHARLIE: Okay.

KIRBY: Oh look at it flowing!

JANA: You wanna make sure you get every cap off.

Cause if you don't then that's honey that we will not get.

And then when it gets full you can scrape it off.

CHARLIE (off-screen): All right let's do it.

JANA: All right, that looks pretty good.

You wanna put it in the extractor?

KIRBY: You bet.

JANA: All right.

So you're gonna.

KIRBY: Ooh.

JANA (off-screen): Put it straight down into that cage.

KIRBY (off-screen): Ok.

JANA (off-screen): Perfect.

So this is gonna spin and all of the honey's gonna get

pulled out of the frame.

CHARLIE (off-screen): It kind of works like a centrifuge right?

JANA (off-screen): Exactly.

CHARLIE (off-screen): Cool science word centrifuge.

That's a device that spins around and separates materials

using centrifugal force.

In this case, it's separating the honey from the comb.

All right, let's fire it up!

JANA: Ready? KIRBY: Let's go!

JANA: All right.

CHARLIE: So you can see inside the frames are being spun

around really fast.

The honey is being tossed to the walls of this barrel.

CHARLIE (off-screen): And once enough is there, they'll come out this spout

into our bucket.

JANA (off-screen): All right.

KIRBY (off-screen): It's time.

JANA: We're done. So do you guys wanna try some?

KIRBY (off-screen): Yes.

CHARLIE (off-screen): Yeah!

JANA (off-screen): Put your finger right under here.

KIRBY (off-screen): Aw yes.

JANA (off-screen): Get a little dollop.

CHARLIE: Ahhh.

KIRBY (off-screen): Mmm, oh my gosh, it's so good!

CHARLIE: Why is honey so sweet?

JANA: So honey is a concentrated form of flower nectar.

JANA (off-screen): So the bees gather it up, put it in the comb,

and then by fanning their wings they evaporate most of

the moisture out of it.

KIRBY (off-screen): Ooh.

CHARLIE: So it's like goopy sugar?

JANA (off-screen): Yeah, they just super concentrate it to the point

where it's not able to ferment anymore.

CHARLIE: So does that mean that honey never goes bad?

JANA (off-screen): Correct.

KIRBY: Ooh.

JANA: They found honey in Egyptian tombs that was still edible.

KIRBY: That's crazy.

JANA: Keep a lid on your honey and it'll last forever.

KIRBY: Amazing.

CHARLIE: That's absolutely unreal.

KIRBY (off-screen): Weird but true.

CHARLIE (off-screen): Next up Jana is taking us to a cool

urban garden called The Pie Patch where she keeps more bees.

When you're heading out with the founder of Bike A Bee,

there's only one way to get around.

JANA (off-screen): So this is my friend's garden.

CHARLIE (off-screen): It's like a little hidden treasure in the middle

of the city.

JANA (off-screen): Yes.

CHARLIE: Because we were biking through houses and city

blocks and when you called it a farm I was like,

"Ok, we'll, we'll see."

KIRBY (off-screen): This is a farm!

CHARLIE (off-screen): Yeah, it's huge!

JANA (off-screen): This is a real farm.

CHARLIE (off-screen): And there's so much stuff growing here.

So how do these guys fit in?

JANA: So bees visit flowers to gather nectar and pollen.

JANA (off-screen): In their little brains, they think,

"Oh I'm just getting a free lunch."

But their hairy bodies are helping transport pollen from

flower to flower and pollen helps create new food.

And also honeybees communicate, for example, when one

worker bee finds a really good resource for

nectar, she flies back to her hive and does this thing

called the waggle dance that communicates to her sisters,

"Hey, this is where the good stuff is."

KIRBY: That's so cool.

CHARLIE: Communicates via dance.

JANA: Yeah, like a dance language.

CHARLIE: Let's look into that just a bit more closely.

KIRBY: Begin with a prance to the flower.

And a delicate return to the hive.

And now we begin the waggle dance.

Excitedly! More excited!

KIRBY (off-screen): The dance is done in a figure eight pattern.

Where in the middle, they wiggle their behind excitedly.

More excitement!

KIRBY (off-screen): In a hive, upward means toward the sun.

If a bee dances at an angle, that is the same angle a

worker bee should fly away to find the flower.

If the flower is to the left, they'll dance this way.

If it's to the right, they'll dance this way.

In order to communicate the distance of the pollen source

you must adjust the length of your wiggle.

KIRBY (off-screen): If the flower is close,

they have a short wiggle.

If it's far away they have a longer wiggle.

It's that easy.

And, moving on!

Flow like the wind.

Out of the hive.

So without these bees here, this farm would kind of look

like my garden back home.

KIRBY (off-screen): Without and fruit or anything like that.

JANA: Yeah, kind of sad.

KIRBY: Yeah, really sad.

JANA (off-screen): Yeah, they play a super important role in making all

this food grow.

CHARLIE (off-screen): Before we head out,

Jana gives us a little taste of what adding bees to Kirby's

garden could do.

CHARLIE (off-screen): That's super good.

They're delicious, Kirb. Right there.

KIRBY: This one's falling apart it's so good.

JANA (off-screen): So good!

KIRBY: Yum! CHARLIE: That's huge!

Guys, how excellent is this?

They planted these plants in here,

Jana's bees came flying over, pollinated the flowers, pick,

right to the mouth.

It's like straight farm to mouth.

These taste delicious.

KIRBY: So good.

JANA: Oh I know! I can't stop.

CHARLIE: Thanks so much for showing us everything today.

It's been absolutely amazing.

You, without a doubt, have the nicest bees in the entire world.

JANA: I'll tell them you said so.

CHARLIE: How you feeling, Kirb?

KIRBY: I'm feeling good.

Ready to get some bees back home.

CHARLIE (off-screen): Looks like we got some work to do.

See you later, Jana.

JANA: Bye guys. KIRBY: Thank you.

JANA: Thank you. CHARLIE: See you in a bit.

Hey, guys.

KIRBY: Check it out! Two honeybee hives!

CHARLIE (off-screen): That's 100,000 honeybees!

KIRBY: Go ahead bees, pollinate my flowers and

bring me fruit!

CHARLIE: Go bees go!

How amazing is this?

Imagine what's going on in our backyard right now.

In a world of Charlie and Kirby's backyard.

KIRBY: Oh geez.

CHARLIE: One bee lives amongst her identical 50,000 sisters.

KIRBY: I guess we're doing this.

CHARLIE (off-screen): Until one day she's promoted to a forager.

KIRBY (off-screen): Buzz, buzz, buzz.

CHARLIE (off-screen): Searching for pollen,

she suddenly buzzes across a flower.

KIRBY (off-screen): Pollen! Yum!

CHARLIE (off-screen): Pollination complete.

KIRBY (off-screen): To the hive!

CHARLIE (off-screen): All that's left is one dance.

One chance.

To show what she's got.

Will the other bees receive the message?

Was the pollination successful?

Will this be the greatest movie of all time?

Find out in: Garden Wars: The Last Pollinator ,

a Charlie and Kirby production.

Roll credits.

Secret teaser at the end.

We make a bajillion dollars.

KIRBY: I mean, I'd see it. CHARLIE: Boom.

KIRBY: But here's my question. You need bees to get fruit.

CHARLIE: True.

KIRBY: I have bees here. CHARLIE: Also true.

KIRBY: But you said that the bees could travel up to six

miles from the hive to get pollen?

CHARLIE: Again, true.

KIRBY: So after all this they still might not come to my garden?

They might go to someone else's?

CHARLIE: Yeah.

KIRBY: Well then we gotta figure out ways to get them

here and pollinate my flowers.

CHARLIE: Ok. I got a few ideas.

CHARLIE (off-screen): Here's one thing you can do: plant

flowers with certain colors.

Scientists say bees often have an easier time identifying

pollen in blue, purple, yellow, and white flowers.

So they're more likely to attract bees.

Bees also need water.

So put a nice little water source in your garden.

And be sure to include some corks.

They act like floaties for the bees to rest on.

Finally, if you really want to go to extreme,

you can build a bee hotel.

This is a type of home that attracts mason bees.

Take a piece of wood, grab a drill,

and drill a bunch of holes of different sizes.

They lay their eggs in there.

KIRBY: Boom! Check it out!

We got blue flowers, we got purple flowers,

we got a mason bee hotel, and we've got a water feature with

tiny little floaties that the bees can hop on and

sip some water from.

I officially have a perfect garden.

CHARLIE: And you'll definitely be able to grow some fruit.

It's only too bad that we're gonna have to close up shop

when winter rolls around.

KIRBY: Ugh winter. Charles.

We'll build a greenhouse.

CHARLIE: What?

KIRBY: I'm gonna need my drill.

Where do you think I can get like a ton of glass?

CHARLIE: Ugh, all right guys it looks like we got a new

project on our hands.

But thanks so much for stopping by.

Come by again when we discover more things that are weird.

KIRBY: But true! CHARLIE: We'll see you guys later!

Really, a greenhouse? KIRBY: Totally.

Captioned by Cotter Captioning Services.