Jamie Grainger sat on a beehive in a rural community in New Zealand for a £500 bet (Picture: Mercury)

A beekeeper has insisted that no bees were harmed during the making of this video of him sitting on their hive.

Jamie Granger was challenged to sit on the hive with a bare backside for NZ$1,000 – £550.

What is the Ig Nobel Prize and who won it this year?

Another colleague had failed the 30-second challenge, managing just 19 seconds on the swarm.

So Jamie, 27, dropped his trousers on the farm in Rural Matamata after being goaded by friend Aurel Braguta.


Jamie Grainger, from Tauranga, New Zealand, said: ‘Was it painful? Well, it was just as you can imagine.

To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 video

‘It wasn’t pleasant but it was certainly amusing. As you can imagine your a**e swells up.



‘It was just a spur of the moment thing and he offered me a thousand bucks – I was like ‘well a thousand bucks’, that sounds good.

Two bear cubs fighting caught on doorbell camera

‘When my partner Lauren found out we both had a bit of a laugh. And when she found out I’d got a thousand bucks she said to me – ‘well that could pay for the wedding.’ But she was just cracking up.

‘One thousand bucks for 30 seconds is the easiest money I’ve ever earned.

‘Aurel is an arrogant bastard and makes bets on the spur of the moment. Like he once gave me 500 bucks to eat a slug.

‘Naturally when bees sting you they die. But it’s near the end of the season and a lot die off anyway.

Needless to say it was pretty painful for him (Picture: Mercury)

‘There is no harm in what we do – we care about the bees and the job is important to us.’

Dad-of-two Aurel was keen to stress that even though the video was a ‘laugh’ it should not be tried at home.

Greedy labrador ate his entire lead during 15-minute car journey

Aurel said: ‘It was just for a bit of a laugh really, As a team we are prepared to do pretty much anything – it’s not insane or crazy at all.

‘Although, he was quite badly stung when he got up – I think it was quite painful for him.

‘I suppose it’s a bit like the TV show “Fear Factor”. It’s about overcoming your fears and being brave.

‘We were just having a bit of fun. It’s just a group of beekeepers having a laugh while at work. We’re a professional company doing what we do.

Jamie ran away after he couldn’t take it any more (Picture: Mercury)

‘But they sting, they always sting. I’ve worked in bees for years now and we get stung every day.

‘You can never prevent being stung. It hurts every time and you don’t get used to it. You just learn to expect it.

'Tropical' bird turns out to be a seagull someone dyed electric blue

‘Not everyone can try to do that – especially not if you’re allegic to bee stings. Your butt may swell and you can’t go to the toilet afterwards.

‘I challenged Shane to do a whole minute and he barely made 19 seconds. So I told Jamie he’d get 1,000 New Zealand dollars if he sat in the bees for just 30 seconds.



‘What you don’t see in the video is that Shane did it first but failed the challenge – so I offered the 30 second challenge for 1,000 dollars – I guess that’s about 700 Euros in exchange.

‘I’ll admit it’s quite a lot of money. We always do weird challenges. We do all kinds of things – like eating slugs. Once we even ate pig’s testicles for a laugh.

‘We were out fishing once and Shaun caught a big fish. He just asked me to eat its eyes. He said if I ate its eyes I could have the whole fish – so I did it.

‘There are things they won’t do, though. Like, for example, we once challenged each other to eat a dead rat and the boys just said no.

‘They’re a great team and we’re a professional company who work with bees on a daily basis. It’s about challenging yourself and facing your fears.

‘You shouldn’t do this if you’re not used to bees and working with them on a regular basis.’