 Though beekeepers since ancient times have allowed bees to rest on their bodies to demonstrate their rapport with the insects, the practice of congregating measurable quantities of bees on the face was initiated by Petro Prokopovych, a Ukrainian beekeeper, in the 1830s.The practice spread to various "freak" exhibitions at Russian carnivals by the end of the 19th century.The record for the "heaviest mantle of bees" is held by a Chinese national, Ruan Liangming, who was filmed by Guinness World Records wearing an estimated 637,000 bees, including about 60 queen bees, weighing about 63.5 kilograms, in May 2014.