Simply a fascinating thread about taking the internet at face value and this ‘heart-shaped honeycomb’
We’re grateful to singer and folklorist Steve Byrne – @byrnesong on Twitter – who took a deep dive into that image of heart shaped honeycomb you might have come across.
The picture has generated no end of stories with headlines like ‘Bees Create Heart-Shaped Hive When There Aren’t Frames Up to Guide Them.’
Except, well, did they? That was the question @byrnesong sought to answer and it’s a fascinating thread.
1.
That beekeeper heart honeycomb image. A thread. pic.twitter.com/55lqUZ4uiI
— Steve Byrne (@byrnesong) June 16, 2020
2.
Firstly, I’m a folklorist to trade. Interested in traditions, customs, tales, songs. How things are passed on.
In June 2020, an artist published a Tweet saying her parents are beekeepers, who sent her this image from a fellow French bee keeper /2— Steve Byrne #stayathome #wearfacecoverings (@byrnesong) June 16, 2020
3.
The beekeeper had left the frame out of his hive, allowing the bees to freeform. Fine.
On the thread, people umm-ed & aah-ed about the bees & their skill, how amazing nature is. It was liked over 60,000 & retweeted nearly 10,000 times.But! I had seen this image before. /3
— Steve Byrne #stayathome #wearfacecoverings (@byrnesong) June 16, 2020
4.
So my folklorist Spidey senses were activated. What’s going on here? To be fair, The person didn’t *actually* say it was a *friend* of her parents. They could have simply sent her a copy of the image, knowing she was interested in natural history (she is a plant illustrator) /4
— Steve Byrne #stayathome #wearfacecoverings (@byrnesong) June 16, 2020
5.
Perhaps they simply said, “Hey look at this amazing honeycomb, apparently it’s from a French beekeeper”. The tweet read “fellow French beekeeper” which could simply mean French person, who is also, like her parents, a beekeeper. /5
— Steve Byrne #stayathome #wearfacecoverings (@byrnesong) June 16, 2020
6.
Fine.
By this time I had done a Google Image Search on the picture. Lots of hits. “Beekeeper forgot to put the frame…” “Beekeeper forgets to put frame…” Hmm. They’re from all over the world, and there seems to have been a swell around Feb 2020. /6
— Steve Byrne #stayathome #wearfacecoverings (@byrnesong) June 17, 2020
7.
Then someone posts a link in the Twitter thread to a @nationaltrust story from August 2015. It was picked up again in Feb 2020 by @mymodernmet and circulated online for a few weeks. https://t.co/ZNTHud8gib /7 pic.twitter.com/LdRPj4B6Bh
— Steve Byrne #stayathome #wearfacecoverings (@byrnesong) June 17, 2020
8.
The NT Facebook caption asks people if they have ever seen anything so beautiful. It also says their bees at Bodiam Castle have been busy making honey for their shop. One *could*, therefore, interpret this honeycomb as having been done by their bees. /8 pic.twitter.com/uNBR4FKMdX
— Steve Byrne #stayathome #wearfacecoverings (@byrnesong) June 17, 2020
9.
But one could also read it as, “Wow. look at this pretty honeycomb picture, isn’t it amazing?” [pause]
“By the way, we *also* have bees, who are busy making honey for our shop”. /9— Steve Byrne #stayathome #wearfacecoverings (@byrnesong) June 17, 2020
10.
Then someone queries the image on the NT FB post, which has been shared several thousand times since 2015.
NT doubles down, or at least their social media person on duty that day does. They claim it was made by their own bees at the castle. The “real deal”. /10 pic.twitter.com/QvvaaUEibG— Steve Byrne #stayathome #wearfacecoverings (@byrnesong) June 17, 2020
11.
Then we meet Brian Fanner.
Brian says in reply to the NT FB post (some 16 weeks ago, which puts us around the time of the Feb 2020 @mymodernmet story, when perhaps Brian became aware of it circulating again):
“I made this.”
Although, Dana doesn’t appear to believe him. /11 pic.twitter.com/mKgWnq2KC6
— Steve Byrne #stayathome #wearfacecoverings (@byrnesong) June 17, 2020
12.
By this time the original Twitter thread was full of people posting the @mymodernmet story, having also done reverse image searches, who proceeded to accuse the original poster of not acknowledging @nationaltrust as the source, rather unfairly, given its clear viral nature. /12
— Steve Byrne #stayathome #wearfacecoverings (@byrnesong) June 17, 2020
13.
It’s quite possible it got to the poster via her parents who had seen it through the many channels it had propagated through. As I said earlier, the wording was ambiguous. Anyhow. Back to Brian Fanner. /13
— Steve Byrne #stayathome #wearfacecoverings (@byrnesong) June 17, 2020
14.
Brian counters Dana’s disbelief with a link to his own Facebook profile. /14https://t.co/dmw8Q0x9OU
— Steve Byrne #stayathome #wearfacecoverings (@byrnesong) June 17, 2020
15.
It’s dated November 2013 (remember the NT story was August 2015). It is apparently a heart made for his wife, Leila. The image only has 18 likes, 3 shares and 10 comments. /15 pic.twitter.com/skX1BXp00H
— Steve Byrne #stayathome #wearfacecoverings (@byrnesong) June 17, 2020
16.
I floated some of this info on the original Twitter thread & was helpfully told that it’s possible to backdate FB posts. Didn’t know. However, apparently this would usually show a small clock icon near the title, to indicate the date had been altered. This is not the case. /16
— Steve Byrne #stayathome #wearfacecoverings (@byrnesong) June 17, 2020
17.
Also, it had one visible share from another person, dated Jan 2015. It seems highly unlikely that both the original post (Nov 2013) and the share (Jan 2015) could be backdated together in such coordinated fashion to appear before the August 2015 @nationaltrust FB story. /17
— Steve Byrne #stayathome #wearfacecoverings (@byrnesong) June 17, 2020