1
00:00:01,420 --> 00:00:26,500
Dawson's bee is one of the largest in
the world. It nests in the baked soil
of the Australian outback. Flowers
are rare in this desert, so colonies
of these bees are few and far
between. The bees excavate tunnels
for their young. The community is so
harmonious that it's hard to believe
that this place is also the setting
for mass murder.

2
00:00:27,710 --> 00:00:52,749
Male Dawson's bees. The females are
only just emerging and borrowing
their way one by one out of the
tunnels where they hatched and grew
up, and their scent inflames the
males. They are huge and built for
fighting, and each one wants to be in
the best position to mate with a
female.

3
00:00:59,070 --> 00:01:22,640
G'day, guys and welcome to Aussie
English. My objective here is to
teach you guys the English spoken
Down Under. So, whether you want to
speak like a fair dinkum Aussie or
you just want to understand what the
flippin' hell we're on about when
we're having a yarn, you've come to
the right place. So, sit back, grab a
cuppa and enjoy Aussie English.

4
00:01:33,050 --> 00:02:31,490
G'day guys. What is going on? Welcome
to this episode of Aussie English.
Today, we have a special guest and
that guest is currently asleep. So,
obviously as you guys may or may not
know, I recently had my son or I
didn't have him, I guess, Kel had
him, but we have our son now and his
name is Noah and he has been a bit of
a rascal for the last week and a half
I think now he is what 15 days. Oh
no, not 15 days, a week and a half,
so about 11 days. He's eleven days
old. He's been keeping my wife up
late at night, when my wife decides
to give me a bit of sleep, so I can
work during the day and then she can
sleep. So, she's currently sleeping
at the moment and I am babysitting
or, babysitting, I'm the dad I'm
taking care of Noah, but hopefully
he's going to stay asleep for this
episode as I needed to get it done
and yeah.

5
00:02:31,560 --> 00:02:55,962
Anyway, please, Noah! Please, keep
quiet. So, welcome to this episode of
Aussie English, guys! This is the
number one podcast for anyone and
everyone wanting to learn Australian
English, but also wanting to advance
the English in general. If you're
trying to get to an advanced level in
English, this is the podcast for you.
You learn about all sorts of things,
mainly about Australia, but obviously
we speak the same English, the same
tongue, the same language that is
spoken all around the world.

6
00:02:58,414 --> 00:03:28,949
So, today in that intro scene at the
start that was a clip from a BBC Life
documentary narrated by David
Attenborough. Make sure that you go
check that out, there will be a link
in the transcript to check out that
snippet on YouTube and it was about
Dawson's bee, a very, very cool
charismatic, interesting Australian
native bee and we'll be talking about
bees in the Aussie English fact
today.

7
00:03:28,980 --> 00:04:19,289
So, before I get started before I
forget if you guys want to get access
to the transcripts and the MP3s, the
downloads for this podcast, go to
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moment we are around 500 people using
the website and they are levelling up
the English every single week.

8
00:04:20,160 --> 00:05:07,290
So, before we get into the expression
today, I've got a joke for you and
it's a bee joke, ok? A bee joke, a
joke about bees. So, the joke is:
what do you call a bee that can't
stop eating? What do you call a bee
that can't stop eating? Num num num
num. It's always eating, always
munching on things. What do you call
the bee that can't stop eating?
Chubby. Chubby. Did you get it? The
pun there is, obviously, on the end
of the word sounding like the word
bee, chubby, bee, but chubby means to
be I guess a little bit fat, right? A
little bit round, a little bit curvy
you're not all morbidly obese, but
you are not really skinny, you're
chubby, ok?

9
00:05:08,430 --> 00:05:53,160
So, today's expression is the bee's
knees. The bee's knees. To be the
bee's knees and this was suggested by
my wife Kel in the Aussie English
Classroom, you guys voted on it and
it was the one that won, it was the
one that came out ahead of the pack,
so the bee's knees, I wonder if you
guys have heard of this expression
before. This one gets used a little
bit, I hear this quite a bit in
American English and there is a beer
that you can buy in Australia called
Bee's Knees which is by a company
called Matilda Bay and it's called
bee's knees. It's the bee's knees
because it has a little bit of honey
lightly infused in the beer, it's a
wheat beer. I actually really like
Bee's Knees, so go check out that
brand if you're at the bottle-O in
the near future.

10
00:05:53,730 --> 00:06:01,668
So, you've heard this expression
before, the bee's knees? To be the
bee's knees. This thing is the bee's
knees. Before we get into it I'll
define the words in it.

11
00:06:03,664 --> 00:06:19,883
A bee is a stinging winged insect,
which collects nectar and pollen. It
produces wax and honey and it lives
in large communities. Now, actually,
not all bees produce honey, but I'm
sure you guys know what a European
honey bee is. They are spread all
across the world, right? And they're
the ones used primarily for producing
honey.

12
00:06:27,308 --> 00:06:41,714
A knee. Your knee is the joint
between your thigh and your lower
leg, right? It's where your kneecap
is, funnily enough, your knee, it's
where you bend your leg at, right?
You've got your knee is one joint in
your leg, you've got your hip is
another joint and you've got your
ankle as well, ok?

13
00:06:47,472 --> 00:07:09,473
So the expression is something is
'the bee's knees', 'the bee's knees',
it is that that thing is incredibly
good. So, it's an outstanding thing,
it's an outstanding person, it's an
awesome or ace thing, it's a ripper
of a thing if you want to use a bit
of Australian slang. The bee's knees,
this thing is the bee's knees. Now,
let's try to look into the origin of
this expression and it seems like
there are a whole bunch of different
possibilities.

14
00:07:15,546 --> 00:07:55,803
So, the phrase 'the bee's knees'
meaning the height of excellence has
been used since about the 1920s at
least along with a bunch of other
so-called nonsense expressions like
the cat's whiskers or the cat's
pyjamas, the snake's hips, the
kippers knickers, the monkey's
eyebrows, the dog's bollocks, the
eel's ankle and even the elephant's
instep. Now, until today, though, I
only ever hear the cat's whiskers and
the cat's pyjamas, as well as the
bee's knees. Those are the ones I had
never heard of, but apparently in the
1920s in the US there was this period
where a lot of these nonsense
expressions were being used.

15
00:07:56,980 --> 00:08:33,142
They were being thrown around and it
was just a part of the culture I
guess in the English language at the
time. So, that's the best theory that
it was just produced randomly in the
1920s when people were playing around
with these nonsense expressions.
However, there are several other
theories including the bee's knees
standing for the B's and E's short
for 'be alls and end alls' and also
that it could be a corruption of the
word business, right? As in business,
as in bees knees. And the last
possibility is that it refers to a
jazz club dancer who was called Bee
Jackson famous in the 1920s, who
apparently had very attractive knees
and she had a very unique dance where
she sort of bent her knees and kicked
her legs in weird ways.

16
00:08:44,941 --> 00:09:06,746
You can probably see that on YouTube
if you look up Bee Jackson. Anyway,
let's get into some examples, guys,
so that you can hear how I would use
the bee's knees in everyday English.
So, example number one: Kel I often
go to a nearby town here called
Queenscliff. It's just down the road.
It's near another town called Point
Lonsdale, so near the opening of the
Bay, Port Phillip Bay in Victoria,
where Melbourne and Geelong are
inside that bay.

17
00:09:11,071 --> 00:09:57,952
So, we often go down to Queenscliff
and we get ice cream from a
Scandinavian ice cream shop and they
always have a wide range of flavours.
Every now and then they get new
flavours in. I'm a bit of a stickler
when it comes to ice cream flavours.
I really like good quality ice cream
flavours, so I tend to stick with
what I know and I tend to have the
salted caramel and the honeycomb ice
creams at that store. They're the
best ones but Kel often tries new
flavours. She's a little different
from me. She kind of likes to, you
know, live it up and try some
different things from time to time,
so if we go there one day and she
tries a new flavour, say it's cookies
and cream or maybe liquorice or
something and she absolutely loves
it, she might say wow! This new
flavour of ice cream is the bee's
knees!

18
00:09:58,260 --> 00:10:02,131
It's amazing! It's ace! It's
phenomenal! It tastes great! It's the
bee's knees!

19
00:10:03,092 --> 00:10:44,120
Example number two when Kel and I
were living in Canberra we often did
a lot of driving back and forth from
Melbourne, so we'd obviously come
back to see family and friends and it
would be a bit of a road trip, but
it'd take about eight hours to drive
either way from Canberra to Melbourne
or from Melbourne to Canberra and we
would drive along the Hume Highway
and the Princes Freeway. So, we were
in the car, we're locked in there for
like eight hours you know except for
the odd piss stop every now and then
when we have to go to the toilet,
when we have to use the loo, when we
have to use the dunny, so to stay
entertained in the car and pass the
time more quickly Kel loved checking
on interesting podcasts.

20
00:10:45,030 --> 00:11:14,679
Podcasts about people being
interviewed about different topics,
maybe about science, about crime. I
really like the crime ones, so maybe
one day I suggest a new podcast that
I reckon she needs to listen to that
she hasn't heard before and I think
she's going to love it because I
think it's the bee's knees, right? I
think it's amazing. I think it's ace.
I think it's a ripper of a podcast.
It's going to blow her mind, it'll
rock her world because it's the bee's
knees. It's awesome.

21
00:11:15,520 --> 00:11:32,082
And the last example: imagine you
guys have arrived in Australia and
you're going for a road trip around
Australia. You plan to go across the
Top End, right? From northern
Queensland around the Daintree
Rainforest, all the way through
Arnhem Land in the Northern Territory
and maybe over to Broome in the
Kimberley's in Western Australia.

22
00:11:35,474 --> 00:12:16,420
So, you have an amazing time seeing
all the sights, experiencing the
Aboriginal culture, seeing the
different habitats, the different
landscapes really living it up, and
when you get back and tell your
friends and family about what you
did, where you went, what you saw,
they might ask you which was your
favourite place and, so you might
pick your favourite place, you might
say oh, the Kimberley's they were out
of this world. They were the most
amazing place by far that I've ever
visited in Australia. They were the
bee's knees. They had breathtaking
landscapes, the wildlife was
everywhere, there was wildlife up the
wazoo, people were amazing. It was
the bee's knees.

23
00:12:17,080 --> 00:12:27,762
So, hopefully now guys you understand
the expression the bee's knees, to be
the bee's knees. This is for
something to be amazing, for
something to be ace, awesome, for it
to be a ripper, ok? To be an
outstanding thing.

24
00:12:30,794 --> 00:12:42,259
So, as usual let's go through a
little listen and repeat exercise,
guys. I'm going to say a series of
words and then phrases and I want you
to listen and repeat after me.

25
00:12:42,620 --> 00:12:53,150
Noah, maybe you're a bit too young,
but you can try as well if you want
in the background and this is a great
way for you guys to work on your
English pronunciation, ok? So listen
and repeat after me.

26
00:12:54,320 --> 00:12:55,320
It's.

27
00:12:59,220 --> 00:13:00,220
It's the.

28
00:13:00,690 --> 00:13:01,690
It's the bees.

29
00:13:03,420 --> 00:13:04,420
It's the bees knees x 5

30
00:13:33,760 --> 00:14:23,169
Now, there's a lot of S's at the ends
of words there. And the first one
it's is relatively difficult to do
naturally like an English speaker
does natively because what's
happening there, first I'm saying the
word it, and then after that and
you'll hear that I'm not saying the T
all the way, I'm saying it, I'm
muting the T with my tongue. It. As
soon as I've said it, I go into the
S. It's, and then after that I slide
the tongue down and go into the th at
the start of the, right? So, you're
going to hear it's the, it's the.
It's a tricky sort of cluster of
consonants. It's the. It's the. Can
you do that? It's the. Tricky.
Anyway, let's keep going.

31
00:14:24,610 --> 00:14:27,190
I reckon it's the bee's knees.

32
00:14:34,590 --> 00:14:36,757
You reckon it's the bees knees.

33
00:14:44,650 --> 00:14:47,419
He reckons it's the bee's knees.

34
00:14:54,700 --> 00:14:57,850
She reckons it's the bee's knees.

35
00:15:05,140 --> 00:15:08,049
We reckon it's the bee's knees.

36
00:15:15,370 --> 00:15:18,399
They reckon it's the bee's knees.

37
00:15:25,740 --> 00:15:28,739
It reckons it's the bee's knees.

38
00:15:36,380 --> 00:16:12,380
Good work, guys! A last little point
there regarding pronunciation. What
do you hear happening between the
word reckon or reckons and the word
it's, right? If I say reckon it's or
reckons it's, you'll hear that the
letter at the end of reckon or
reckons, so an N sound or a Z sound
actually links to the front of it's
and starts the first syllable there,
right? So, you'll hear reckon it's,
reckons it's. So, that connected
speech is something to really
practise if you want to sound much
more like a native English speaker.

39
00:16:12,800 --> 00:16:42,860
And if you want to learn all the
tricks and tips behind connected
speech make sure that you join up to
the Aussie English Classroom and do
the spoken English course. There are
loads of lessons in there about
connected speech, about reductions,
about linking, you'll get a lot out
of it and you'll sound a lot more
natural after you've finished that
course. Remember,
www.AussieEnglish.com.au, sign up and
give it a go. One dollar of your
first seven days. Anyway, guys! Let's
get into the Aussie fact and then
we'll finish up for the day.

40
00:16:43,550 --> 00:17:24,200
So, today I wanted to talk about bees
in Australia. Bees in Australia. We
have both native and non-native
species of bees in Australia. The
non-native European honey bees found
in the wild in Australia, as well as
in people's backyards and it's even
farmed by people, right? You'll hear
of beekeepers or what are called
apiarists. So, they're kept by
beekeepers across the wetter parts of
Australia usually around the coasts,
particularly on the eastern coast of
Australia and there are 20,000
registered apiarists spread across
the continent, producing between
25,000 and 30,000 tonnes of honey
every single year.

41
00:17:24,770 --> 00:18:06,109
Approximately 70 per cent of this
honey is produced using the nectar of
native Australian plants as well.
Bees also contribute to the Aussie
economy in more indirect ways,
through their free pollination of
crops, a service that is worth
somewhere between four to $6 dollars
to the Australian economy and about
50 per cent of beekeepers are
actually paid for this free
pollination service that their bees
provide. In fact, some commercial
crops such as almonds rely
exclusively on bee pollination for
crop production, which has led to a
boom in demand for bee pollination
services across Australia.

42
00:18:06,740 --> 00:18:39,950
There are around 20,000 registered
beekeepers in Australia, who operate
approximately 650,000 bee hives. Most
commercial beekeepers have between
400 and 800 hives each, though some
have as many as ten thousand or more.
The majority of registered beekeepers
are located in New South Wales,
making up about 45 per cent of all
Australian beekeepers, while the rest
are spread across Queensland,
Victoria, Western Australia, South
Australia and Tasmania.

43
00:18:40,730 --> 00:19:18,637
Aussie honey is consumed in more than
38 countries worldwide and the
industry grosses around $100 million
a year. Aside from the European
honeybee, Australia is home to at
least fifteen hundred other species
of native bees, which is nearly 10%
of the world's bee diversity. There
are about 16,000 species of bees
spread across the world. So, that's
right. A bee is more than just a
European honeybee, right? What is a
bee? Bees are flying insects that are
closely related to wasps and ants and
unlike these cousins of theirs they
are adapted to feeding on nectar and
pollen.

44
00:19:19,010 --> 00:19:47,929
They use nectar as an energy source,
I assume a lot of sugar in there, and
they use pollen for a source of
protein and other nutrients. In
Australia, they're an incredibly
diverse group of insects and species
have a wide range of different
traits, some are really big, some are
really small, some are brightly
coloured blue yellow and green,
whilst others display more drab
colours like browns and blacks. Some
are venomous stingers, whilst others
aren't.

45
00:19:48,290 --> 00:20:16,190
In fact, many of the native bees that
do happen to have stingers can't
actually use them on humans because
they are too small to do so. Some
live in hives or social groups,
whilst others prefer to live a
solitary existence out on their own.
Of the bees which are social they do
produce honey, but nothing in
comparison to the European honeybee
and taste wise the honey of native
bees is much tangier than that of the
European honeybee.

46
00:20:16,790 --> 00:20:39,183
There's even a small cottage industry
for native beekeepers in Australia
interested in filling their gardens
with small hives for their insect
neighbours to inhabit as a home base
from which they can pollinate the
garden. However, only in the warmer
climates of New South Wales and
Queensland can you actually harvest
any of the excess honey they produce
during winter because in colder
climates the hive relies on that
harvest to survive the colder months.

47
00:20:42,031 --> 00:21:15,779
So, my favourite native bee is the
Dawson's bee, Amegilla dawsoni. A
species of burrowing bee that nests
by the thousands in the arid clay
pans of Western Australia. It's one
of Australia's largest bee species,
growing up to 23 millimetres in
length and about 45 millimetres in
wingspan. And despite living in close
proximity to other bees in vast
communities or colonies, they're
actually solitary nesters where
females build and occupy their own
burrows.

48
00:21:16,530 --> 00:22:18,840
The nests are dug into the ground
with individual capsules created for
each brood cell and females only
breed once in their breeding season.
While most of the year is calm and
peaceful for the Dawson's bee, the
breeding season is a particularly
brutal and dangerous time for the
bees, particularly the males.
Interestingly, the males are
dimorphic, meaning that they have two
different forms which are determined
by brood provisioning strategies
during their development. So, in
other words, what tucker they're fed
by their mums when their larvae
determines their body type. The two
different forms each have their own
advantages. The larger males, called
'majors', make up about 20 per cent
of the male population and a much
more aggressive and patrol the
emergence areas of hatching females
when they're about to emerge out of
their burrows after they have
matured, over which the males then
compete in physical fights often to
the death to mate with these virgin
females.

49
00:22:19,110 --> 00:23:05,400
In comparison the smaller males,
called the 'minors', make up about 80
per cent of the male population and
instead of patrolling the emergence
areas, these guys wait at the fringes
of these areas hoping to mate with
any female that is able to sort of
run the gauntlet and escape and try
and fly away unmated whilst the
majors are busy fighting to the death
with each other. So, by the end of
the emergence period when virgin
females are leaving their nests all
male Dawson's bees will have died or
been slaughtered in the mating frenzy
and if females were savvy enough to
avoid injuries or even death during
these dangerous skirmishes, they'll
fly off and begin their solitary
life. So, there you go, guys. I hope
you enjoyed that episode for today.

50
00:23:05,610 --> 00:23:24,294
Thanks again Noah for joining us and
keeping quiet there in the
background. Hopefully you learnt a
little bit too. It's always a
pleasure chatting to you, guys, and I
hope you have an amazing week. Stay
tuned. There's some big things coming
in Aussie English in the near future.
I will probably do an episode and
tell you about it soon but yeah
thanks again and I'll chat to you
soon.

51
00:23:29,470 --> 00:24:08,699
G'day,mate! Thanks for listening to
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like to boost your English whilst
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