Beekeeper’s Challenge To Break Record In Bizarre ‘Bee Bearding’ Race

Bizarre Chinese Bee-Bearder Wang Dalin  Â

It appears that not all of us are of the inclination to keep a sensible distance away from bee’s especially when there is a world record title at stake.

And one such beekeeper from China proved that to be the case when he was crowned the winner at a bizarre bee-bearding contest which took place in Shaoyang City on Sunday.

The intrepid and fearless 42-year-old Wang Dalin challenged his fellow bee-bearder Lu Kongjiand, 20 in a bee-bearding race against time.

Both men dressed only in shorts, and sporting a pair of goggles and nose-plugs, took their positions on a set of scales and stood for one hour using the aid of a queen bee to attract as many bees as they could to swarm all over their bodies.

Once their 60 minutes race was up, a delighted Wang Dalin was declared the bee-bearding winner having attracted an unbelievable 26.86 kg of bees, compared to his fellow bee-bearder Lu Kongjiang who still managed an impressive and not for the squeamish, 23kg.

Unfortunately for Wang Dalin his win did end up giving him quite a nasty sting in the tail as he failed to break the current world record for the most amount of bees ‘worn’ by a competitor at any one time which is held by US animal trainer Mark Biancaniello, the bee-bearding hero who lured a staggering 39.5 kg of bees to his body in 1998.

Hailing from Russia in the 1830s, the bizarre sport of bee-bearding was initially restricted to attracting the bees to the competitors face, but over time the challenge has spread the length and breadth of the body allowing more room for bees to form their world record beards.