At the risk of turning this into a session on "Bee Eaters I Have Known", there are certainly other critters who enjoy sitting in front of a hive and eating bees. The hedgehog, which long ago was brought to New Zealand from England, is a notorious eater of bees. No doubt the spines of the hedgehog help to protect it from the unwelcome attentions of guard bees, but there are plenty of reports of hedgehogs being found dead in fronts of hives with their exposed parts full of stings. The other classic bee eater is the cane toad, which doesn't even wait until nightfall to dine out in front of hives. The cane toad can handle dead bees, live bees, bees on the wing, and bees on the landing board, all with equal ease. I personally have never seen a cane toad stung to death by bees (we thankfully don't have cane toads in NZ), but on several occasions in the South Pacific I have come across cane toads which have eaten so many bees that they literally can no longer hop away.