The bees did it themselves? “It's something we all want to believe in.”

The photo shows honeycombs arranged in a shape resembling a heart or a maze. According to the descriptions posted by Internet users – who comment enthusiastically on the photo – such an arrangement was created by the bees themselves after the beekeeper forgot to install special frames for honey in the hive. “In their opinion, this solution is the best at regulating temperature and air flow,” it was commented.

The photo is very popular on the Internet, we found many posts with it. The eye-catching photo of a honeycomb is shared on social media regularly: only this year and only on Facebook you can find publications from March, May, June, July, August, September, November and December. The descriptions are similar, for example: “This photo was taken by the owner of the hive. The beekeeper forgot to place the frames in which the bees store the honey, so the bees built their own honeycomb architecture, allowing for natural ventilation so that the air can circulate freely and the temperature can stay stable. It's amazing!

The frequent repetition of such posts should not be surprising: a positive story with a nice photo is usually very popular on the Internet, regardless of when and where it is published. Only one of the November entries on X had over 250,000 views. times, and some Facebook entries – such as one published in December – are shared by hundreds of users. That's why images of combs can be found on accounts and groups unrelated to beekeeping or even nature: their owners see it as a way to increase the reach of their other content.

And of course there wouldn't be anything wrong with that if it weren't for the fact that this nice story was mostly made up.

The earliest publications with these photos that we found on the Polish Internet, are from 2018; with descriptions in other languages, this photo is already circulating at least since 2014. It began to be published especially often on Polish social media in 2020.

In June 2020, an “internet investigation” into this photo carried out Steve Byrne – Scottish folk singer and folklore researcher. At first he found it entry with photowhich was published by the British non-governmental organization National Trust in August 2015. The authors of the post claimed that the heart-shaped honeycombs were created by bees in the apiary at Bodiam Castle in the south of Great Britain.

Most commenters expressed admiration and praised the bees for their “sense of art”, but Brian Fanner also commented on the post, stating that he was the author of “this little work of art”. And he wrote that it was “simple manipulation”. Steve Byrne contacted Fanner. He sent him a link to original post with photowhich he published back in November 2013. At that time, the post was not as popular as its copies later: to date, only 15 people have liked it and 80 have retweeted it.

Above all, however, Fanner – a beekeeper from South Africa – described the history of the photo, which contradicts the one spread on the Internet. He assured that the bees themselves would not have created the heart shape from the honeycombs. It is worth noting that what we see in the photos are wax strips; it is in the holes of the wax structure that honey is collected.

The beekeeper himself is responsible for the shape of the comb visible in the photo, because he previously prepared a board with appropriately cut recesses. He filled it with wax, which is a natural signal for bees that a honeycomb should be created in this place. The rest was done by insects. “They just came across this weird stripe pattern and started building on it,” Fanner recalled. So the photo is real, but the shapes of the combs are the beekeeper's idea, which the bees “realized”.

To confirm his words, Brian Fanner sent to Steve Byrne photo of the standwhich was used by insects to build combs. You can see the shape of a heart and additional grooves on the sides.

Steve Byrne compiled digitally a photo of the sent pattern with a photo of honeycombs that circulated extensively on the Internet. This allowed him to confirm that this was indeed the basis on which the bees later created “their creation.” “Seems reasonable, right?” – he asked.

After solving the mystery of Steve Byrne's photo he statedthat these types of stories “are what we all want to believe, that the bees and Mother Nature came up with it by accident – or, even better, on purpose.” In this case, it turned out that – as he wrote – “it was a beautiful example of synergy between people and nature.” Finally, Byrne concluded: “On the internet, search beyond what you see. Don't take things literally. Don't let the 'oh' feeling get in the way of thinking, 'Hmm, is this true?' Because there are people who try to take advantage of such good human instincts in an uncharitable way.”