Final sting: I’ll bee back

STUNG, not once but seven times, Philip McCabe still wants to have another go at getting bees swarm all over his body to get into the Guinness Book of Records.

Philip failed on Saturday to break the record for a beard of bees spiralling his body.

Fellow beekeepers from the Galtees managed to place about 200,000 bees on his near naked body. All he wore was underpants.

Philip was trying to break the world record held by Mark Blancaniello from California who managed to cover his body with 350,000 bees.

Philip’s attempt at the village of Burncourt, near Mitchelstown, was put out coast to coast in the US by Fox and all over Australia by Channel 9.

Philip, aged 60 from Co Louth, is President of the Beekeeping Federation and decided on the record attempt to raise money for Bothar, the Limerick-based third world charity. Although he failed to break the record, Philip said he learned a lot and will make another attempt next year.

“There was a wind and it was not warm enough which meant the bees were moving around. We only used one funnel to place the bees on my body and this took too long as I had to stand still for over two hours while this procedure was going on. Next time we will use a number of funnels.” He got seven stings as the bees were being ‘scraped’ from his body.

He said his attempt was much more difficult than the record holder’s as he was covered with the Irish Black Bee which is far more aggressive than the Yellow Bee used by Mark Blancaniello.

He said: “We started by placing one queen bee under my chin and then spots of honey were placed all over my body.”

The number of bees is estimated by the weight. The US record holder’s 350,000 bee beard weighted 87.6lb.

Although Philip did not break the record, his venture has been a big winner for Bothar. “I set myself a record of €50,000 and the beekeepers around the country have been tremendous. People are still sending in the money.” Bothar chief executive, Peter Ireton praised Philip for his record attempt. Anybody wishing to add to Philip’s fund can do so by sending money to Bothar Ltd, account number 28225981, sort code 98-60-20.