Indian honey collector stuffs shirt, mouth with live bees

While most people like to stay away from bees for the fear of getting stung, a man in India was seen stuffing his shirt with the insects with his bare hands.

Professional honey collector Suk Mohammad Dalal, 32, is a resident of Chandramonipur village in West Bengal, a state in eastern India.

He has been collecting honey for the last 16 years, but what makes him different from others is the way he goes about his business.

While the usual way involves applying smoke around the comb to drive away the bees, Suk Mohammad’s method is very hands-on.

Though he starts off with the usual smoking, it is what follows that makes it interesting.

According to visuals from one of his many honey-collecting trips, Suk was seen stuffing his mouth with honey bees. Later he repeated the same, putting the bees inside his shirt. The man was also seen cutting a hole in the middle of the honeycomb and putting his head through, while bees buzzed all around his face. Once he is done collecting the honey, Suk lets out the bees from his shirt.

While these stunts are not only risky and can prove fatal for an ordinary human being, Suk Mohammad’s body has developed resistance to bee stings. Before taking up his present job, Suk worked as a doctor’s assistant in Kolkata, the state capital. 

The poor pay made him switch jobs.  

Suk said, “Since I live in a village, I would often come across honeycombs containing a good amount of honey. One day while walking past, I thought what if I start collecting honey and selling them, I could easily make a living out of it. That is how it started.”

When asked about his bizarre way of collecting honey, Suk said, “Other honey collectors generally kill the bees. My intention is not to kill them. So I stuff them in my shirt. If you let the bees live, they return there after 15 days and start making another comb, therefore you can have more honey from one place.”

According to experts, after getting stung 13 times a week, a person will get used to the process. This happens because the body produces regulatory T-cells which minimise the side effects when the immune system is attacked.

This would also slow the affected area from getting swollen, as opposed to an ordinary person getting stung.  

Sharing his journey, Suk Mohammad said he wasn’t so confident while starting up and was even scared. He once became unconscious after getting stung by over 300 bees and even wanted to bid adieu to the profession, however, he stayed back.

Suk said he gets stung by 10 bees on average during a regular operation. “This has allowed me to build resistance and now I can easily bear the pain of getting stung by 400 bees at a time.”