Subject: Question--getting stung

From: [email-masked] (Roger Post)
Date: 5 Feb 1995 06:57:39 GMT

In article <[email-masked]>, [email-masked]
(Paulette) writes: > I am fascinated by bees and am thinking about getting a
hive or at > least trying to get some experience working with bees in a more

> rural environment (I live in suburban Los Angeles).  I am just
> wondering, though, how much beekeepers tend to get stung while
> actually working with the bees--extracting honey, for example.
> Would ten or twenty stings be average?  Do you get used to them?
> SHould I try building up immunity by getting stung increasingly
> now?  Or is it just not a problem?  Thanks, Paulette
> 

I suggest that you start by wearing gloves etc. I know that some beekeepers do 
not but they are old hands at it. When I had hives the most I ever got stung
was one day 9 times on the ankel. Most of the time I would be able to work
with them without getting stung at all. however I always wore veil and gloves
and long sleeve shirt even in the summer in Phoenix. 

If you have a severe reaction to bee stings you might want to think about some 
other hobby.

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From: [email-masked] (Pollinator)
Date: 5 Feb 1995 19:05:24 -0500

In article <[email-masked]>,
[email-masked]
(Paulette) writes: > I am fascinated by bees and am thinking about getting
a
hive or at > least trying to get some experience working with bees in a
more

> now?  Or is it just not a problem?  Thanks, Paulette

    I am a commercial beekeeper, who gets stung a few times most days, and
occasionally, when the bees have a bad day, so do I.  As a rule of thumb,
I figure on only about one really bad day each year.

    Your body adapts to stings, so that eventually the only ones that will
have any signigicant effect are those right close to your eyes or lips. 
Of course any sting hurts, but after your body is adapted, they will not
swell, and will stop hurting in a minute or two.  Usually in ten minutes
there is not even a mark to show where you've been stung.

    I encourage people who are starting to have gloves available, but not
to use them if possible.  Gloves make you more clumsy, so may actually
increase stinging.  They also can carry the sting odor and increase
stinging.  (You can wash your hands and should always have wash water
available.)  Gloves can also become contaminated if used to handle
foulbrood cases.   Bees will rarely go for your hands on purpose, most
such stings occur when you accidently mash a bee, so just work calmly and
carefully.

    One time I had a serious reaction to a sting after dental surgery,
when I was on a painkiller.  Some drugs (I've heard those in the ibuprofen
family) will interact with bee venom and cause reactions.  In my case I
had hives, itching, sweating and I think, a fever.

    On another occasion, when loading a truckload of very aggressive bees
I had some reaction.  The bees had been in an apple orchard and were on
wagons, which were drawn to a central loading area during the night, and I
loaded at daybreak.  They apparently didn't like all that bouncing around
at night, and the loss of the apple bloom.  I was miles from home and had
no gloves with me (bad plan!) and was probably stung several hundred
times.  My wrists swelled a little, and all my joints ached.  Something
like a case of flu - I think I was running a fever.  Fortunately I had
another driver (who stayed in the truck during loading).  I took two
Tylenols and slept for a couple hours while he drove, after which I was
fine.

   You won't have such a situation, if you keep a couple hives in the
backyard. I'm just illustrating it as the extreme case.  I keep Benadryl
available in the trucks for the help, but I've never used it for stings,
as it will put me to sleep (the hired hands too).

   Most stinging can be avoided if you pick your days to work bees - a
luxury that often is not available to commercial beekeepers.  If you find
the bees are touchy, you can try another day.  Generally they are bad if
they cannot get out for several days of poor weather.  Bees that get
crowded in the hives tend to be more aggressive, so if you keep plenty of
room you'll have gentler bees (and also limit swarming).

   Once in a while you'll have a rogue hive that is always in a bad
temper.  To deal with it the easiest way, place a small starter hive next
to it (a nuc just transferred into a full sized hive is good), then move
the nasty hive a couple hundred feet on a nice morning when you expect
good foraging conditions.  The nasty workers will leave from their new
location, forage, and return to the old location, where they will enter
the nuc.  Don't plan on doing anything with the nuc for a while, they will
temporarily become nasty until these field workers die off.

   After time for most of the field force to transfer, open the nasty hive
and find the queen.  There will not be very many adults and they will be
almost all young bees, so they will be more gentle.  Find the queen and
kill her.  Then introduce a queen in a cage, from good gentle stock. 
Without the older bees, there should be good acceptance.

   Incidently bee stings, while temporarily painful are probably
beneficial in moderation.  How many beekeepers are in their seventies and
eighties, and still working like young men.  I think they help me stay
younger.  In the winter, when I am not handling bees, I sometimes get very
stiff, especially in my lower back.  I can go to the bees and deliberately
get a couple stings, and the stiffness will go away for a couple weeks.

   I may be giving you more than you want here.  The key is that bee
stings are not usually a problem, and there are solutions if there are.  I
have a lot worse problems getting employees because beekeeping is hard
work, than because they sting.

[email-masked]                       Dave Green
Eastern Pollinator Newsletter
PO Box 1215, Hemingway, SC  29554

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From: Phil Severn <[email-masked]>
Date: Mon, 6 Feb 1995 09:34:49 GMT

> If you have a severe reaction to bee stings you might want to think about some 

While I concur with most of what your advice said, I don't agree about getting 
another hobby. I have an allergic reaction to bee stings, admittedly it has settled 
down over the years, but it never stopped me from enjoying it as a hobby. I have on
average 15 hives and working with a mate we work 40 - 50 hives. While I wear the
full protection my mate only puts his gear on when the bees get agro. Maybe because
the weather is reasonably constant in temperature over here (Australia) that seems
to be the trend, only wear the gear when you have to. So I get pretty hot when working
the hives  but as I said I still enjoy it as a hobby.
                                                      Phil S.