For a decade now, the internet has marvelled at the pattern formed by these bees; turns out it was made by a South African beekeeper and he is finally getting the credit!
Western Cape, South Africa (21 April 2023) – The internet can be a devious place sometimes; people get hacked, cat-fished and not given credit for their work or worse yet, have their work claimed by another party altogether. In the case of the viral heart beehive, a decade has passed since it was created and it’s only now, we get to hear the proudly South African origin story.
In 2013, South African beekeeper Brian Fanner made a honey heart for his wife; he called the hive “a sweet heart” and they opened the hive on Valentine’s Day. The picture of his (and the bees’) work, was shared online to his Facebook page and by 2015, the image was no longer being credited to him. In fact, many beekeepers have even claimed it as their own… gasp! But it was these claims that led Steve Byrne to seek the truth.
Steve Byrne, a public Folklorist, wanted to get to the bottom of the image’s origin so he spent a great deal of time connecting with various sources to get the full story. In 2020, the image made a resurgence and went viral in the modern sense. He shared his findings in a Twitter thread that detailed every step of his search and many of his findings.
You can read Steve’s entire breakdown of his investigation on Twitter here. It is a 35-part thread and it’s brilliant! But here is the synopsis:
In 2015, The National Trust shared the image on its Facebook page. The post went viral and had loads of engagement. At the time, they had merely shared the image and not personally claimed credit for it. Since then, the post seems to do the rounds each year, around Valentine’s Day.
Several different posts have stated that the beekeeper had forgotten to frame the hive and the bees made their own structure to better airflow. This was not true; in fact, Facebook even placed “fake news” warnings over any of the posts that stated that.
A whole host of inaccuracies about the image were spread across the internet but through Steve’s Folklore sleuthing, the real story was finally found. The most important being the original poster, Brian Fanner. Steve was able to connect with Brian and it was here that he found the very first time the image was shared. Brian explained that he had a simple process for getting the bees to make this structure.
“The things that come up are really funny from how bees have “artistic sensibilities” to bees creating that shape “to increase airflow”. I’ve seen companies using it in their websites and so many claiming it came out of their hive somewhere in the world.
“I used this board, routed in the slots… a rush job I’ll admit… waxed in some foundation strips into the slots and screwed inside a deep langstroth hive lid and stuck it on the hive. The bees made do best they could…”
“The lines are slots into which a foundation wax with the comb pattern on it can be placed…secured with melted beeswax. Normally…a sheet…to guide the bees as to where to build. So they just come across this weird pattern of foundation strip and start building onto it.
“After that they just fill it out best they can. It’s a simple manipulation. The bees are Capensis. The honey was most likely early season succulent type plant called a ‘vygie’. [mesembryanthemums].
“I called the image ‘a sweet heart’ dedicated to my wife…per the very first post of it on my Facebook page in 2013. We scraped all the comb off the board, strained out the wax and consumed…not a very practical artwork to keep.”
Steve’s findings may have been as far back as 2020 but still to this day, the image circulates with inaccuracy. With homesteading, self-sustainability and beekeeping becoming popular hobbies once again, the post has been shared with more frequency in recent months. We have seen it pop up more and more, and thought by sharing the origin, credit could be given, where credit was due! Even a decade later.
by 