Laurence Edwards opens a Flow Hive that's been taken over by European hornets. The nest has grown since his last visit, with larvae visible and a single entrance hole in the roof. He wears full protective gear and documents the aggressive colony while his heart rate climbs.
The last time I came to inspect this colony of bees in my fake Flow Hive, there was the beginnings of a European hornet's nest inside the roof. I can see lots and lots of activity at the entrance, but I have not killed this European hornet's nest. And today I'm going to go inside and see how much it's grown and give you a real close-up into one of the most amazing insects that we get in the UK. Fingers crossed I don't get stung too much because the sting from a European hornet is pretty bad. Doubled up my gloves, I've got my Ultra Wear BB suit on, I always get really scared messing around with hornets, but I'm definitely going to go in, see how this nest is getting on. Right, so if you remember it last time, I had access to look down here last time, but now I've not got any access at all apart from one single solitary hole. This is so cool. That is the only way in and the only way out. They go in through the roof, they come in down here, and then that's it. You've got one single hole that That's the entrance, that's the exit, and underneath that hole there is going to be maybe a huge amount of European hornets, a nest, a queen. We will see what's underneath. Now we've definitely got European hornets knocking around here. I can see them. They're already not going for me, but they're just kind of like hovering around. A couple in front of my face there. It looks so, so cool. I genuinely can't believe that I've got a European hornet's nest in a beehive. But I am a little bit scared, I'm not gonna lie. The reason is I just don't know how big this nest is gonna be. It could be filling this box. There could be hundreds, if not thousands, of hornets about to attack me. What am I doing? This is a little bit crazy, isn't it? Right, I'm just going to go ahead and do it. I'm going to lever it up. Let's see what's inside and see how big this European hornet's nest is. Right, this is so scary. You do not understand how big these hornets are. And also just the way that they move, like they're coming for my face there. I can see they are not happy at all. I've broken a little bit of their nest there as well, so I am sorry about that. They'll have to rebuild that. And I can see them banging into my fingers as well. Oh my God, I wish I had my heart rate monitor on. I actually think I've got one on. Maybe I'll see how fast my heart rate's going at the moment. They are going for me and they are not happy at all. Let's get a close-up, see if the queen's still in there, and see how big that nest is. Well, you know what, I thought the nest might be a little bit bigger than that. It's still a lot bigger than it was last time, and you can see all of those larvae. Look at them moving, and you can see the European hornets coming back onto that nest now. I've just placed it down because it wasn't very stable where it was. I was a bit scared that it was going to blow off. So you can see all the hornets hovering around there. They're wondering what's going on, don't know where their entrance has gone. Just trying to find their way back in. Got a few going over to the top there, checking out the nest. But it's over here where the action is. Look at all those hornets going round. Absolutely crazy. So there we go, inside a European hornet's nest. I'm gonna put this back together now. I'm gonna close it up, and I will come back and give you regular updates throughout the season. We'll see how big this nest can get.
