Mohamed Hagras stands bare-chested as dozens of honeybees congregate around his face, eventually forming what he calls the “beard of bees”.
The 31-year-old engineer-turned-beekeeper has been doing this for years both competitively – he fondly recalls a Canadian model’s “bikini of bees” at a beekeeping event – and as an effort to educate Egyptians on the usefulness of bees.
“The goal is to show that bees are not aggressive,” he told Reuters at his farm in Shibin el Kom, the capital of the Nile Delta province of Menoufia. “One the contrary, they are helpful and produce things that help humans and agriculture.”
Hagras extracts hormones from queen bees after they die and uses them to attract bees from the same hive.
He uses the “beard of bees” at contests and exhibitions where like-minded people try to break world records.
The current holder is a Chinese beekeeper who in 2015 covered his entire body with over a million bees, a combined weight of almost 110kg (242.5lb).


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