Featured Image Credit: Instagram/@bartons_bees
Topics: Animals, Environment, Life, Social Media
Rhiannon Ingle
Topics: Animals, Environment, Life, Social Media
People have been left seriously divided after a man revealed why he 'purposefully' stings his wife with a bee.
The internet has been sent into quite the spiral after a beekeeper who goes by the handle @bartons_bees took to Instagram to share a video of him holding a bee and making it sting his missus.
He could be heard telling his wife to 'hold still' before it stung her, prompting her to yell 'ow, motherf**ker!'
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"How does it feel?" he asked, before she responded: "It's fine!"
The beekeeper than removed the stinger and cleaned the area before saying: "Proud of you!"
The overlay text on the video read: "Purposefully stinging my girl."
In the caption, the beekeeper explained what he was doing was actually helping his wife 'combat' something he dubbed 'Beekeeper’s Wife Syndrome'.
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He said: "[The syndrome] occurs when someone, often a beekeeper’s partner, develops a severe allergy to bee stings after repeated micro-exposure to venom - usually from regular contact with the beekeeper’s clothing (like doing shared laundry with a frequent beekeeper) - even if they weren’t allergic before.
"To combat this, a few bee stings a year can help the body build a natural resistance to the venom."
The beekeeper assured viewers that he had his wife's 'full consent' before adding: "I gave my girl a controlled sting to help strengthen her tolerance, and her reactions to stings have dropped dramatically since we started!"
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He also made sure to add a disclaimer to any fellow beekeepers, writing: "If you’re a beekeeper and considering something like this, always proceed with extreme caution.
"Have an epipen nearby, stay close to a hospital, and never attempt this without consulting a medical professional.
"Some people are naturally allergic to bee stings, and this method isn’t suitable for everyone. I’m not endorsing this method for others; I’m simply sharing what has worked for us. Try it at your own risk and only with professional guidance."
Some people were clearly shocked by the video with one Instagram user hitting out: "The way you flicked that bee is going to haunt me... who does that."
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"Poor bee. Why did you kill the bee?" questioned a second, while a third piped up: "Why would you do that? There is a MASSIVE shortage of bees and ur killing them for no reason. This's what SCUM does!"
Speaking about the beekeeper who literally dedicates his life to the critters, another slammed: "You do not care about bees. Gross."
Others, however, were far more understanding with one viewer defending: "People are getting so upset over a single bee while this guy is literally a beekeeper raising tens of not hundreds of thousands of bees personally."
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A second supported: "Very glad you are beekeeping, very glad you are keeping your loved ones safe while doing it. Ignore the negative comments. We impact this planet by existing on it: the iPhones people are commenting on have a sketchy history at best: beekeeping is important keep at it."
And a final Instagram user pointed out: "Dudes whole life is about making bees flourish and people crying about 1 damn bee."
In a statement to Tyla, the beekeeper said: "To all of this people I care about the life of my girlfriend far more than a single bee. She needs occasional stings to keep her from becoming allergic. My step mom got Beekeepers Wives Syndrome from lack of stings and she almost died of a beesting.
"Furthermore, as a commercial beekeeper I crush hundreds of bees a day every when I keep bees. However my farm hatches out approximately 150,000 new bees a day. The loss of a few isn’t a problem."