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Author Topic: My First Sting!  (Read 3759 times)

HesterF

  • Joined Jul 2012
  • Kent
  • HesterF
My First Sting!
« on: August 19, 2013, 12:23:37 am »
I feel like I've reached a milestone - not my first ever sting but my first sting from my own bees! Ironically I was just looking for the entrance blocks to put back in so I just went up to the hives to see if I'd left them up there. Clearly I was too close for comfort and had attracted a following by the time I left - and one got me just above my eye (now looking attractively puffy). Oh, and then the blocks were in the house anyway (put them back in after dark).

But this leads me on to a question. I did my last inspection last Sunday and the bees were so annoyed, I gave up about half way through the second brood box (now on double brood) for both hives. I'd seen both queens and eggs so all seemed well but should I still be checking every week? The combination of food slowing and variable weather seems to be hyping up the bees to such an extent, I'd rather not be annoying them further i.e. I was a bit scared!

H

hughesy

  • Joined Feb 2010
  • Anglesey
Re: My First Sting!
« Reply #1 on: August 19, 2013, 08:01:20 am »
We took the last few frames of honey off yesterday and put the apiguard on. Ours don't seem bad tempered perhaps they were just having a bad day. We'll probably continue to look every week for a while and will start to feed syrup in a couple of weeks. Then the inspections will only be a quick look to make sure there are no obvious problems and to top up the feeders, and before we know it they'll be closed down for the winter.

Ray Baxter

  • Joined Aug 2013
  • The Scottish Borders
  • Proud to be a smallholder
    • New Mains Smallholding
Re: My First Sting!
« Reply #2 on: August 20, 2013, 11:20:49 pm »
Hi,

I read recently that it takes around 200 bee stings to develop some kind of immunity to the symptoms associated with bee stings - so only 199 to go :-\ I must be well over 100 stings and am still waiting - although I do think that the localised swelling is reducing with each sting.

I think that it is quite normal to have bad tempered bees at this time of year. We are having to feed ours, due to a general lack of forage. I am concerned that the queen may stop laying and folk think that this will stop this from happening. Personally, I wouldn't be too concerned about looking in the other brood box, if you have spotted eggs and brood - the hive must be queen right and everything should be fine.

Cheers, Ray

Ray Baxter

  • Joined Aug 2013
  • The Scottish Borders
  • Proud to be a smallholder
    • New Mains Smallholding
Re: My First Sting!
« Reply #3 on: August 20, 2013, 11:33:16 pm »
Sorry I missed a bit.

The frequency of bee inspections is hotly debated topic. Many will say that you need to do weekly inspections, find the queen, look for eggs and so on. Others argue that weekly inspections are very disruptive and can have a negative effect on bee health. It's amazing what you can learn from watching and listening to the bees at the entrance. I watch my bees most days. At the moment I have a hive that causes me concern. It has a little brood, but not enough for the winter. I will look at this at the weekend. If things haven't improved then I will unite this hive with another. I mention this only to show that the frequency of my inspections is determined my an assessment of bee health.

Cheers, Ray

Greenerlife

  • Joined Mar 2009
  • Leafy Surrey
Re: My First Sting!
« Reply #4 on: August 23, 2013, 09:44:21 pm »
There is a lot of conflicting reports on bee stings as well!  I have a terrible reaction to them (stings swell my flesh to enormous lumps the size of dinner plates and I scratch like crazy for two or three days and my skin gets to be tight as a drum - no sleep!) i have read a lot about different reactions and my conclusion is that there is no conclusion!  Some people who have never had a bad reaction to stings all their beekeeping life have died with anaphalactic shock after just one more sting, and some people grow out of it (I am hoping for the latter!).


Thanks for reminding me to take my oney off though!   :excited:

HesterF

  • Joined Jul 2012
  • Kent
  • HesterF
Re: My First Sting!
« Reply #5 on: August 23, 2013, 11:55:20 pm »
Well by the next day my eye had swollen shut and stayed that way for 24 hours. I eventually gave my immune system a kick into touch with some antihistamine and all is now back to normal. Fortunately it was a completely local reaction - albeit more extreme than I've had before.

Will do another inspection this weekend so that was a two week break and hoping they're a bit better tempered. They've got a lots of stores in there (I've taken no honey off) so I wasn't planning on feeding them yet - should I be just to keep them happy?

H

Laurieston

  • Joined May 2009
  • Northern Germany
Re: My First Sting! - watch out with rings
« Reply #6 on: October 11, 2013, 11:02:01 pm »
I've had about 5 stings this year.  Not much considering how many bees buzz around me.  Actually it amazes me how passive they are considering what we do to them/their homes.

Anyway, I find that I swell up more than I used to.  A boy in my daughter's class said that his dad tried to suck the poison out of a bee sting before it could get right into the blood stream.  Anyone tried that?

Couple of weeks ago I was stung on the finger, and somehow thought I should remove my wedding ring.  Proved to have been a very good decision as my fingers got much bigger than normal and would NOT have fitted in my ring.  It would probably need to have been cut off, which would not have pleased me or my wife.

Lesson 1: Remove rings if stung on/around fingers.

Just a thought, my brother told me (not entirely sure if I believe him) that rings can, in an emergency, be cut off with an angle grinder, he did it for a work mate whose finger was being badly squashed by the ring. He says the angle grinder did less damage to the finger than the bent ring, but I'm not sure I would want it done to me (although doing it might be fun!!!)



Greenerlife

  • Joined Mar 2009
  • Leafy Surrey
Re: My First Sting!
« Reply #7 on: October 12, 2013, 08:17:09 am »
I Always remove my rings before I even start a beekeeping session.  I know how quick my swelling starts!  It was one of the first things I was taught and is now part of the ritual.

ladyK

  • Joined Dec 2012
  • Conwy Valley
Re: My First Sting!
« Reply #8 on: October 12, 2013, 10:14:39 am »
We only started beekeeping this year, and we were taught that weekly inspection are only necessary during swarming season. After that it is as and when you feel necessary. I always feel the the bees are being really disturbed by havung their home taken apart, so I have tried to do less rather than more - trying to observe the entrance traffic a lot more to spot anything 'off'. An old hand told me recently that when you can see the bees bringing in pollen this is a sign for young brood, i.e. queen rightness, because pollen is for brood food and they only store a little of it at a time.

I managed to get stung twice in this first year, the swelling was the same, but the itch much reduced the second time around, so there is hope! There has been research that getting the stinger out as soon as possible, now matter how, is the best way to reduce reaction, even 2 seconds longer in the skin make a big difference (I didn't know that the first time around): http://www.psu.edu/ur/archives/HealthMed/BeeSting.html
"If one way is better than another, it is the way of nature." (Aristotle)

 

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