In 2019, bees were falling from the skies around Australian Parliament House as the silly season got underway. A number of the boozy insects were spotted staggering around near the parliamentary building after drinking themselves on fermented nectar, while others were found dead from what appeared to be some kind of alcohol poisoning. As the Australian Parliament’s head beekeeper, Cormac Farrell explained, the phenomenon was likely a result of sunny days and rising temperatures.⁠ ⁠ _____⁠ ⁠ The fermented nectar will usually make the bees “a bit wobbly”, and if they try to get back into the hive while drunk, then the guards will turn them away until they’ve sobered up a bit.⁠ “The drunk bees are kept out of the hive to stop the honey from fermenting inside, which could hurt the whole colony,” Farrell said. And the security guards appeared to be doing their job: according to the “online sensors” monitoring the state of Parliament House’s bee hives, none of those colonies had been negativ...