If we're going to come to a point where robotic bees become what we depend upon for pollination, then it's my opinion that we've lost the battle for sustainability. Natural bees and pollinators need to be provided for through better environmental management. More agricultural diversity and reduction of mono-culture farming, partnered with responsible reduction of the pesticides you mention. You said it, neonics... we just need the populations of the world to care more about the environment and less about recreation-related pollution. All we need is for people to care about the environment overall, and act locally to preserve air, soil, and water quality. Thanks!

I feel like if bees disappeared we would have a MUCH bigger problem than a 150 billion dollars

My family used to raise bees in the 1980s. We lost all of our hives due to colony collapse back then. I suspect that modern farming methods have had a huge impact on bee populations, due to excessive use of herbicides, pesticides, and genetically modified hybrid crops that cause less nectar production in the crops.

One thing i love about this guy is that he can talk without a million jumpcuts. I have never noticed anyone point this out. 90% of UKpostsrs cannot speak a full sentence without a jumpcut and this is what puts Thoughty2 heads and shoulders above the rest! :)

I started noticing bees activity at a roadside park garbage can. Some bees were dying inside the diet soda cans. They were okay in the non-diet soda cans. I don't know where bees might be getting so much of the diet soda poison that whole colonies are collapsing but it seems to be an agricultural chemistry problem.

I think one of the problems we’re dealing with is that we are using bees imported from other countries in our hives. We want the best honey producers not what is best for the environment. This creates competition to the local be populations. If we’re gonna have hives, it should be of the same species in the area to not disrupt the balance of food.

As a beekeeper, I truly appreciate the education of the public on the plight of the honey bees is important. Having experienced CCD in some of my hives, I can tell you that there is nothing more frustrating than to see my work in maintaining colonies in my hives quite dispiriting. Thanks for your time and attention to this very important, but little talked about problem.

One household at a time. That may be the ultimate solution. I live in a town/small city and only have a small backyard and a front yard. In 2022, I started a backyard garden which included your basic vegetables as well as a raspberry patch and a strawberry patch. This past spring I expanded the garden, added four blueberry bushes, and started an herb garden. Though I saw no honey bees, the bumble bees seemed to thrive. For 2024, I'm considering adding clover to the front yard grass and expanding the backyard garden. Perhaps, "if you build it, they will come." Perhaps not. But it's worth the time, effort, and cash.

I only have one hive at the moment and this one is my second one. By that, I mean that I lost my first hive after about 3 years over last winter. I don't know what happened, they had plenty of food stores and minimal mites. They thrived the first two years and even gave us about 26 pounds of honey one summer. After speaking with other keepers in the area who lost a lot more than my one little hive, I found out that there was a 45 - 50% hive loss across the US. The keeper I speak to every few months lost 9 out of 26 hives, and they been beekeeping for over 20 years. They, and not even Cornell University who has a special beekeeping section know what happened last winter. It could've been the crazy winter with the up and down temps. Hopefully my new hive will survive this winter. 🤞

100% with thoughty on this: let's save the bees first.

In Toronto, building owners have bee-n allowing companies to put bee hives atop bee-ldings to help repopulate the colonies. We also have authorized sections of land specifically for wildflowers to grow to help both bed and butterflies. I've personally seen at least three places like this and they have placards explaining the project and boasting a multitude of other similar sites across the megacity!

As usual, your humor is spot on, even with the sad topic of this video. "...let alone convincingly shag a rose," is one of the funniest phrases I've heard in a long time.

The fact that we are looking at bee alternatives rather than moderating our behaviour to allow bees to thrive shows that, as a species, we are horrific.

I have a lil over 8 acres..I live in the country..used to be grasshoppers were huge..bees made hives in the trees an honey would seep down them...people moved in on the lots around us an started keeping lawns short ...we left some overgrown for the wild..but then the county started complaining ..made us keep yard down eventho the only town near us is over 2 miles away...we have hills on the frontban back of us..we own the one behind us..for 20 years that went on..last 3 years I let some overgrown an just started seeing several hives in the ground in the trees...so I said to hell with the county I am more concerned with the wild than I am with the fines

My mother, an Iowa farm girl, has an amazing green thumb. She has the ability to pollinate flowers and plants in her garden with just her touch, or her technique of touching. Likely there are many in the world that can do this. Surviving a bee-pocolypse would be difficult except for small groups living around these green thumbs.

The size of the bees was changed some centurys ago so they could carry more nectar and polen and that caused the mite problem. Before that time, only drones were affected by mites. Currently, there are some projects to reverse the be size

Personally, I do everything I can to attract bees. Every year I plant flowers they love. We are so used to each other in the yard, that the bees don't see my family as a threat. Even if disturbed, they just find another flower and move on.

I’m a backyard beekeeper. I was in Los Angeles but I am now living in a small rural community in the San Jacinto mountains. I’m in the process of teaching beekeeping to my neighbors and they are teaching me about goats and chickens. We’re planning on building a bee house real soon because I think if we want to keep nice bees like Italians we’re going to have to protect them from the wintering over. I’m really looking forward to this project. The good news is recently in the LA County beekeepers association club a woman from some University I can’t remember which gave us the good news that colony collapse is slowing down and possibly slightly reversing and that the research at the University has found it’s because of backyard beekeepers. Beekeeping is very cool and bees are the most amazing creature you can imagine. I think everybody should get into it and it used to be every small farm or gardener kept bees. The biggest thing is keeping up with the Berroa mic problem. If you do that and you learn that well you’ll be able to keep healthy bees. My biggest challenge up here is the fact that Africanized bees have actually made it up here on the mountain. If you’re not careful they will take over your hive kill your queen and then you have difficult bees. The solution is always to get a new queen but it’ll be an interesting adventure to see how that works up here. You don’t want to get rid of the Africanized bees though, they are much healthier and can defend pretty well against Verroa mites, and have somehow I don’t know how, adapted to this climate up here. You can keep them as a beekeeper but they’re kind of a pain in the rear and you need to have a lot of space so they don’t attack your kids or your other animals. Because if they get pissed off it’s a problem. Thanks for taking the sun it was very interesting

in my local council area in Australia we have adopted a less pesticide way of looking after plants by using bee hives as a natural pesticide, its less invasive and bees are happy to help

my gramps was a beekeeper when he became a pensioneer, and so was my aunts father-in-law and she took up the colonies and takes care of the bees now, incredible honey! it's quite a bit of work and maybe not the cheapest hobby to get into but selfmade honey is amazing and you can sell your quality product for a good price. ALSO you can tell everyone that you are literally saving the world by taking care of the bees and honey ;D I definitely have to get a couple colonies soon aswell! (you could even keep them on a balcony go and annoy your neighbours or landlord because cats & dogs are forbidden but nobody ever said anything about not being allowed to have bees as pets!)

Three years ago in 2020 our local council relaxed their aggressive approach to gardens that are either overgrown or had too many weeds in them. The result was that in 2020-2022 I was seeing and hearing quite a few bees in our local neighbourhood. In 2023 the council returned to their stance that any property with a garden or lawn had to be well maintained, lawns had the mowed at least once every month and fines were issued if any gardens or lawns weren't correctly maintained (this included areas which weren't visible to the general public). This year (2023) I haven't seen or heard ONE bee in our neighbourhood, I'm not saying it's a direct result of what our local authority has done but it feels as though it's too much of a coincidence. Also the elderly lady at the end of my street was telling me that she had noticed the lack of bees this year and that she had to self polinate her flowers. Add that to the hundreds of tenants who are mowing their lawns to an inch of their lives, the tenants who are replacing their gardens and lawns for concrete driveways, patio's etc and it's easy to see why the bees decline is falling.

Your videos always bring a smile to my face. I’ve been stuck inside my house for nearly 5 months now because I got hit by a car and now have trouble walking. The most I can do is just walk around my street because any further and my legs give out. so when I come to your channel, it isn’t, just because you have such interesting things to talk about but it’s how you present the topics because you’re fun to watch but you’re also very formal and intelligent while still being funny and entertaining. You have a passion about creating content that Opens peoples eyes and for me in my current condition, where I am slowly going mad, I really need stuff like this because it gives me something to focus on other than the physical pain and the fact that I can’t do anything. You really are a lifesaver. One of the best channels for learning while getting a good giggle .

As a person who likes food and has a garden I've noticed that 20 years ago I was too scared to pick raspberries during the daytime because there were too many (long hair and bees can spell tragedy for both) Now I can count the bees when I go picking. Raspberries have a long growing/picking season here so its more than just pollen availability. Concerned.

i'm a home bee keeper, and have a few colonies out in the back yard; I think it would be kinda neat to have a little robot hive next to my organic colonies. from what i know about honey bees (in my area) there likely would not be any conflicts at feeding areas...you only really see a "defense" response at the hive entrance, and most people would be extremely surprised how much you can mess with them before you'll even get stung. case in point, i don't wear any protection when i open my colony boxes up to do my bi-weekly inspections, i just keep the smoker rolling and the bees generally give you several warnings before you get to the point of stinging, and i've never been stung multiple times in the same day. I wouldn't mind talking with you on the subject, as there's a lot to consider on the topic, between bee behavior (bee-havior?) and technology. It's winter here in the states right now so I can't exactly take you to the back yard to have a look at my hives and whatnot, but I humbly leave the offer on the table for you to take or leave at your leisure. Love the content, always keeps me coming back for more :)

When you mentioned the dystopian aspect I thought you were going to point out that whoever makes these first will have unfettered control over food production and can set the price at whatever they want and we'll have no choice but to pay

Another part of the problem is, and I've seen this happen, Beekeepers have started moving their hives during the day, when most of the bees are out seeking pollen, they used to move them at night when most bees are in the hive

Thank you. I appreciate the many hours and tedious attention required to produce interesting and relevant science videos. This episode on bees and robot bees is super informative and the humor only adds to the viewing experience. So, again, thank you! Also, is the use of '42' a Douglas Adams reference? :)

There is no winter slumber. The bees constantly fly and look for sources of pollen ad nectar every day that is above 50 degrees. The bee issue is also much deeper than pollination. Bees carry formic acid which is the key component to plant life. Plants that don't have nectar exude other liquids such as sap etc. This is another form of plant communication with bees, so bees visit these plants also and this helps the plants to grow. A huge problem that plagues the honeybee population is pesticides as you mentioned. Particularly the nicotine based ones because nicotine gets bees high. However, there is also another more subtle issue. Beekeepers! That's right beekeepers beekeepers feeding, sugar, high fructose corn syrup, pollen substitutes, and treating the bees with antibiotics. At least this is what I have learned during my 10+ years of beekeeping and research. It's really sad how money can get in the way of the most simple of solutions!

As a beekeeper, I’ll stick to the real thing

'Save the F*****g Bees' needs to be a T shirt for a Bee charity.

Been keeping bees over 40 years. Been in the ranching business since the '60s It is my belief it is our wireless Technologies. Primarily the ones that run on the same bandwidth as Wi-Fi. That's when things started going south for the bees. I have designed special beehives to screen out radio frequencies. Not much can be done when they're foraging, but at least they have quiet time. I rarely lose hives now and often wild hives will take up residence. So..... A mechanical bee seems like it should be one of the easiest of all robotics. With the exception of the queen all the bees themselves are pre-programmed. And they act as one hive mind. And Bee sex only happens with one drone and the Queen. All other bees are female and worker bees. The queen only mates once. And the Drone when mating with her loses his junk. It then dies. Collapse disorder is not when you find a bunch of dead bees. But when you find no Bees. the other element to The Disappearance is what's happening to many in the animal kingdom. Their navigation depended upon a fixed magnetic pole. but they started wandering about 150 years ago. Around 20 years ago it was picking up speed. today moving at an exponential rate the Earth's poles will likely flip within the next 10 to 30 years. there are a lot of science papers now backing it up but you will never hear it from media you'll have to research it. Anyway the wandering poles are causing many to be lost or confused. And observation says humans are as well. LOL

So i actually wanted to actively help with that by having my own hive in my backyard. I even went on a course on how to keep them alive etc. But what i learned there was, that the big problem is not the typical honey bee (in fact the number of honey bees incresed in the last few years because the honey industry grew so large), the honey bee (and bumble bee), is the only social bee that exists (also the only bee that produces honey), so all the other bee species (and there are a lot) are not living in hives or with multiple bees. And thats the BIG problem because these are the ones declining in population. But because they cant be kept like honey bees its nearly impossible to increase their number. They need insect hotels (for example) to lay there eggs and reproduce. Another thing is that honey bees alone cant even pollinate every plant. There are some plants that can only be pollinated by a specific type of bee. So instead of focusing on honey bees, you can help by setting up an insect hotel to help not only bees but also other insects to keep their population stable. Great Video, thumbs up!

honestly it's funny that all the big brains thought making new tech bees would be cheaper and more efficient than actually trying to fix the problem lmao

I'm a bit on the fence about that idea because robotic bees is part of an episode of Black Mirror and to have them literally work on a system that can be hacked is a severely Dangerous Thing

I gotta say it brightens my day to hear your voice. How do you look even younger with every video? You make learning even more fun.

Its not just bees that are disappearing, when I was a kid there were loads more insects in generl that I rarely see any more and Il live in a fairly naturey place. Ladybirds, butterflies even house-flies aren't nearly as numerous as they were too. Part of the problem is that most people weren't taught to value insects, and look at their gardens as plant showcases rater than ecosystems.

When I was a young man I knew 20 to 25 people in my county who kept Bees. Today, I don't know anyone within 100 miles that does so. My grandfather told me that at one time everyone kept at least one bee hive for their gardens and for a sweet food source. I think that as a part of the farm bills we do here in the US they should require the keeping of Bees to increase the bee population.

Seriously, thank you for all of the awesome content you have put out over the years. I have been an avid watcher and subscriber for two years or so and have watched pretty much everything you've made in the past six years. You have earned yourself a place in many people's lives as a purveyor of interesting facts and hilarious quips that keep us coming back for more. Keep up the good work!

I got a salt shaker and a load of flower seeds mixed in it then just shake it anywhere there's grass/soil. I also put up insect hotels to help. 😊

Your idea to just save the bees is so outrageous, fantastic and simply crazy - it might just work.

There are in deed beekeepers who rent out their hives to farmers, transporting them around to pollinate on an industrial scale. Of course, small scale local beekeepers and wild bees also play a vital role, and their importance can hardly be overstated, but industrial scale pollination is most definitely a thing.

I only buy local honey- it's the best! I agree. We should be doing more to help the real bees instead of trying to make mechanical ones. I remember as a child I'd see honeybees everywhere in the yard. Now I might look for days and see one or two. It's really sad. I grow fruit trees and have to do some hand pollinating just to get ample fruit on the 6 trees I have. It's a lot of work. I wish the bees would come back. At least here in America having Bumblebees helps.

While there's no 1 solution to the bee issue, it has been documented that the way most agriculture practices are not good for bees long term. Monoculture farms and orchards play a huge part. Just by adding more diversity to farming practices, and allowing native flowers to border orchards and farms can aid in bee health and possibly attracting native bees. That being said I could see this technology being a great help to vanilla bean growers or other plants that have a short flower life or flower at night and pollinators not available.

Thanks for bringing this to life and spreading the word. Everyone needs to know the benefits of bees and stop being afraid of them and save them. If you have a proper yard or area start an apiary. Great job Thoughty2.

We have no idea how bees talk to each other. This is a crazy true story, a hive of bees was brought onto a movie set when out of nowhere it seemed another hive flew in after the movie bees were released. The people asked the bee keeper, what do we do? He said stand back we have to let the bees talk it out or figure it out among themselves. Somehow the bees figured it out the other hive went on to do their thing the movie bees returned to their hive and the people were able to film. The people have no idea how this was able to work out but it did.

Always informative, always delivered with facts, and good humour, well done Thoughty2

There’s quite a bit to learn about bees. It’s really fascinating to find out about them.

I think if we had the technology required for robobees, we wouldn't use it for pollination. We would use it for warfare (as always).

I have a feeling when they'll finally make the robo-bees they'll include the stinger just for kicks and giggles :)

Back when I was a little boy in San Diego, our favorite pastime was to catch honeybees in our bug catcher jars. 13 bees was our record. They we’d rip the top off fast and throw the jar into the grass to let them go.

I know why bees are in trouble. Glyphosphate. Last summer I sowed a half acre with wildflowers. The field adjacent to me was sprayed twice with glyphosphate during the growing season. Both times the bee, indeed all insects, population dramatically declined and the few left seem sick and disorientated. Additionally the crows were effected too, their reactions slowed so much that dozens were getting killed on the roads.

Let's keep what we have. Not everything should be replaced by machines just to make things convenient for us. Ecosystem will fall when we remove or replace something that is a part of it. 👏kudos to this channel for always giving these eye opening contents❤

I just wanted to thank you for this and for all your videos. My daughter and I watch them together. She loves bees and thinks we should all work hard to save them -- and I told her, perhaps that will be her calling in life. ❤

Thank you for talking your heart out... As we all do not have to be PhD to comment on something amazing... Because knowledge can be poisness towards opposing thoughts.... Which can be productive criticism. Humans are naturally selfish and or in cimplex regarding their being able to achieve accomplishment... So we overthought always to replicate instead of repair...

"Why don't we just save the f**king bees"💯❤️😆My brain was screaming that during the video til you said it. Haha

In my opinion the robotic bees would be better suited for farming environments that are indoors than outdoors. Not only does this reduce the threat of robotic reduction of normal bees but would also allow the bees to keep the tethers if they were fixed to a moving slider on the ceiling. There’s probably flaws with my idea but it does sound like it could be more useful for things like moon bases than anything else.

I loved you and your channel for years, and I tend to always like, comment and share your videos with friends. I hope I helped all these years, even if it wasn't donation of money, I donated my time, and I thank you so much for yours and your team.

Could be a very nice idea, but 1st needs to be inside or at least contained. never release them in the wild. 2nd i think there are much better ways to produce food without screwin up nature. the support bees sound very good tho, instead of replacing it help it :)

About twelve years ago North Alabama was hit with tornadoes that left us without power for three weeks. I lived in the city that sent us to the moon but I grew up in the country. I worked at an office and my agents were complaining that their food was going to go bad. I told them to cook it. They asked me how. I told them to build a fire. They asked me how. I realized that most humans lack any basic survival skills because everything is provided for them. At some point our site director rented a van and brought provisions including charcoal and a grill. At this office of 3,000 people they sought me out by name because they were told I could assemble a grill and cook on it. I got paid $25/hr as a manager to drink beer, grill out and feed these people. Most of them had not eaten in days. It was not because they didn't have food but because they lacked the basic skills to build a fire and cook over it. Teach yourself how to survive without the things you take for granted.

Like all robotics, the power problem for un-tethered operation is insurmountable at this time.

In one of his last robot stories, Isac Asimov wrote about tiny robots much like these. His robots were predators used to cull other insects, but the scale and technical specs was similar. In the story, this si the creation of now obsolete super-intelligent robots, and the purpose of making them was to make humans accept robots as a part of their everyday life. Reading this in a sinister way, the obsolete super-robots were creating a future - for robots.

Bees can be trained… they only try what they know and if their lives are being lost faster than they can pass on their knowledge… it speeds up their demise… a tipping point… These should be used along side bees , inspired by bees… and help them choose flowers and pollen they make like.

Did you know that for a long time people didn't know how bees where able to fly. People didn't understand how bees could fly because their wings are to small to make the thrust to lift their weight. It was only after we learned how to make lift with a wing did people learn how bees are able to fly. Most of the thrust from their wings goes in to moving air across their backs. Making a low and high pressure difference above and below their bodies respectively. This makes their bodies act as the wing its self giving them lift.

I live out in the sticks and almost every yard has at least one hive. I get the best honey and local beekeepers love to use my property to find new swarms. Usually get a quart of liquid gold if they catch one. I've been planting bee friendly patches everywhere I can to keep my supply going!

Thank you Arran for all of your great content! I bought "Stick a Flag in it" yesterday, and so far the first few chapters have not disappointed. I loved the story about Matilda. Keep up the great work!

The only thing I could think of from the start is the black mirror episode when you mentioned it I felt so complete for some reason ✨

For the record, bumblebees aren't in any danger, it's the far more important many kinds of wild bees that are specific polinators of specific plants. The common bumblebees are very inefficient at polination since they'll go for any plant while wild bees have many types that just go for their kind of plant.

❤ Let's save bees and not try mess up with the mother nature

Greetings from SA fellow Thoughty2 binge watchers. I think I've actually gotten smarter since I started following this channel(few months back), after watching countless videos I can confirm Thoughty2 is single handedly creating a more well-informed people after the education system has done its absolute best to make us brain-dead zombies, I appreciate the time and effort over the years this man has taken in trying to make us knowledgeable about things that actually matter(😅and other stuff is of course edu-tainment or JUST entertainment but still we always learn something. The history, science, psychology, fun facts and real world matters.. delivered in the most intriguing way possible) ..exceptional.

Another problem with robotic bees is sustainability, those require resources that are hard to recycle, and they would brake on field adding challange of finding them for any repairs. Some of us already point out shortages of materials that would then be needed to create billions of those. It's still a cool project and I'm happy with using those for other things, but for pollination we should save the bees, science is not only for workarounds but also for fixing problems, seems many people confuse the two😅

So you’re saying there’s a 1 in 27 chance I’m watching this while sitting on the toilet reading the comments and eating ?

You make me sleep. I mean that in a good way. Been suffering from sleep deprivation and (almost) insomnia for a couple years and now I'm play your videos on totally random topic that I'm not even interested and listen to it. Your voice is very soothing.

First thing I imagined with those artificial bees around was them being eaten by many insecteaters and killing them as well if they would/could be used outside. It’s just a terrible idea trying to replace pollinators. We should try to protect them at all costs but yet we’ve already given their unmeasurable value a price.Though these robots could be for a lot of use indoors or for those likeminded ideas of spending money for flying to the mars instead of trying to save first what we have.

"1/3 chance you're eating" Me stoppin mid-bite eating the same sandwich as the animation is showing: Hah?

I agree with you. We need to save the bees and should be funding R&D into figuring out how to increase the number of real bees, both wild and 'domesticated'. Thanks for the really extensive video on this, and including the info on the RoboRoyal project.

I do wonder if it wouldn't be possible to find another flying insect, that could take over the essential role of Bees, since some plants already rely on other insects to reproduce. And it's also not unheard of that a dying species suddenly makes room for another to take its place

with the amount of land converted into farmland and with flower meadows on decline, i'd say at a guess they lacking the variety in there diet, combine that with pesticides and other environment factors may be having an effect.

Possibly the amount of lab created crops, I think its the self pollinated corn that immune to herbicide like Roundup when bees go to theses types of crops the get poisoned or so I've read

As usual, an excellent video. Robo Bees are probably a great invention for the farming inside a building that's happening. As I understand it, there are two aspects to the bee problem: the agricultural bees(not native to the USA and used on farms) and the native bees. The native bees don't live in hive boxes and are in danger from loss of native plants, as far as I know.

I agree with everything you said in this video. I love bees, but also, don't forget about all the other pollinators out there who don't get enough credit {bats, moths, butterflies, various other insects). I think they should still work on robo bees for a worst case scenario but obviously everyone would still prefer the real thing

Yeah somebody saying that they could have been taking back artificial sugar to the nest I think it may have to do with And stuff and they decide instead of Flowers They're gonna get sugar that is probably dangerous for Them like aspartame Maybe because it's more condensed? like humans go for junk food because it tastes better but it's actually terrible for us?

Eastern europe colony collapse has a common element, there are crops protected by neonicotinoids. They basically coat the seed with nicotine derived substance, unfortunately for everyone including bees the nicotine derived substance is systemic so it will affect all who eat it and those insects who feed on it or pollinate it. Neonicotinoids has been shown to cause mass die off of the bee colonies that pollinate it, and although there is a ban in the EU for it that doesn't mean all in the EU are playing by the same rules.

As appealing as the RoboRoyale is, I see one problem. I have trouble imagining the worker bees allowing robot bees into their hives, let alone allowing them near their precious queens.

It's mostly for butterflies but I've set a patch in by back yard for milkweed since they also help pollinate. If I had the knowhow, time, and money I'd probably look into setting up a little hive for bees as well.

when i turned the video on, i expected something relatively serios, but now we are talking about hammster a**es, i love it

3:24 That sign is very accurate

Keep in mind the effect of all the EMF's and endless variations of frequencies we blast into the atmosphere 24/7. Bees communicate on vibrational frequencies. Just a thought here and it is a little out there, But, If a bee will just die because there is no pollen to be harvested, what if some frequencies are telling them to die? These vibrational frequencies could also be cause damage to their delicate physical health or biological systems in a variety of ways.

I love Bees ( even though a bumble bee stung me a week ago ). I think both robotic options sound good. The pollinators could be used in indoor farms & probably on other planets later on.

It’s not just bees that pollinate flowers, mosquitoes, flys and other insects, even some mammals and birds

What if you didn't put all the tech onboard the robo bee, but instead have it wirelessly connect to a central "hive mind" computer making or helping to make calculations and decisions from onboard sensors? Isn't there a way to beam power to each unit to by now? Or have the bees return and dock for quick power reloads between sorties? lol If the computer controller can be placed in a field you could pollinate an area however far the energy and communication extended.

Imagine you evolve to be small, be able to fly, create your own home, love absolutism, taste on the addictive drug in plants, and now you’re the most important thing in the world

When I hear "robotic bees", I think "Bee Skynet unleashing Bee Terminators against Humanity".

Bees are definitely very important and a huge contributor to pollination, but let’s not forget they aren’t the only ones! You have butterflies, wasps, mosquitoes, beetles, moths. Definitely don’t want bees gone though

I bet it's smart phone radiation. I've noticed if my phone rings while working the bees, they go nuts.

The best thing about ALL of your videos is the fact that YOU narrate them all. I'm so sick of hearing the AI doing the job for the lazy creators.

Tbh I was thinking the EXACT SAME THING. We should just focus on saving the bees, not replacing them. Lol.

Sipping my coffee right now, I've been watching Thoughty2 for 2 years and it's always been a great experience. Sending love and support from the Philippines. ❤️

I'll tell you why we can't save the bees. I wanted to put a bee hive on my property, but I need to pay all kinds of fees, get a bunch of licenses and be subjected to constant government inspections..... If I did put a bee hive, my guess is that no one would ever be the wiser. My property is the last house on a dead end street surrounded by woods and fields, but knowing how much head aches I could have I just won't take the risk. In this day and age, no good deed goes unpunished.

sorry, if this is stupid question, are there not natural pollinators other than honey bee (honey bee to be exact) is it just that there are no incentive due to there being no by-product of Honey? i mean the world can do without so much honey but it can't do with out vegetable and food. the honey industry have a hurting local native bees and bugs...

Dang, Aaron, you guessed very well. I was sitting here eating as I put this video on. Well done, bravo! I think what could help the bee problem are forest rangers and bee keepers getting together, and setting up colonies of bees periodically throughout the forest. Those bees in theory should fly out, pollinate stuff, but also create more natural colonies instead of their artificial one. And they should use several genetically diverse colonies so the bee population cannot get wiped out easy with disease. So for example, bee colonies would be planted as such: Bee Colony 1 - Genetic A Bee Colony 2 - Genetic B Bee Colony 3 - Genetic C Bee Colony 4 - Genetic D Bee Colony 5 - Genetic A Bee Colony 6 - Genetic B Etc.