I can attest to the bees smelling fear. I recently got a honey hive in my back yard, and the first time I went in, it was a disaster: I was panicking, and they kept buzzing me, landing on my face mask and crawling all over my hands.

Now that I'm more confident and deliberate, I can do my thing and, call me crazy, but it sounds more like they're purring. They leave me alone when I'm in the hive and calm down much quicker.

-- gnat! (can't wait until I get honey!)