I admire your calm reaction! Last year, a bee did get stuck in my hair, which naturally made her angry, and I was so panicked that she might sting me that I dropped everything I was holding (fortunately, it was only the smoker and the hive tool) and danced around while trying to open my hair bun and get the bee out.
Ironically, she only stung me once I had shaken my hair open - apparently by then she decided she had enough of all the dancing around, so when she got out of my hair she stung me in the jaw. Meanwhile, other bees had been alerted and two more stung me in the face before I managed to get the smoker and neutralise the alarm pheromones.
Fortunately, even from the start my body didn't react much to the stings - it naturally hurt, for about half an hour, and felt hot to the touch, but there was not much swelling (in the face, what's more!). Supposedly a beekeeper needs about 10 - 20 stings to get to that point. So I felt sorry for the poor bee - it needn't have stung! it needn't have died - and didn't suffer much. From the sting, anyway! I was VERY embarrassed at having dropped my stuff like that. >_> So kudos to you for staying calm and finishing your work first!
The smoker was another part of the problem. Last week, a block of smoker fuel would not go out until being completely doused with water, so we didn't have the smoker since the fuel was still soaked from last week! It's now out drying in the sun ... won't make that mistake again!
I'm thinking your situation sounds much scarier! :D Bees in the face ... not fun. (I thought you might scold me for not wearing a veil, but it seems you weren't either! :D It was too hot for all that today, although I did put it on when we went back to finish putting the hive together, which took all of one minute, thankfully.)
I've been stung so many times (as a kid who wanted to be an entomologist and played with bees ... only four times as a beekeeper) that I'm really not afraid of it. I think that helped today. :)
I always feel bad for the bees who die, they think, protecting their hive. I wish I could tell them I mean no harm! :(
No scolding from me, no! Last year I always went "into the bees" with no veil - I was fresh from the beekeeping classes (where none of the instructors wore veils), and I only had two tiny colonies (what's the English words for the mini-colonies you form in spring when a strong colony might be in swarming mood so you take away two or so frames (with or without queen cells but definitely with eggs/larvae) and put them into a new box? The German word's the same as the one used when you take cuttings of plants for potting, Ableger - anyway, I had two of those) so there weren't all that many bees anyway. And, well, they were always very docile. So I was getting cocky!
This year I'm more paranoid (bloody hormones, seriously), so I'm wearing the veil and a baggy long jacket. I hope that I'll go back to a more relaxed attitude once the baby is born and I only have to worry about myself. (As my mother and grandmother are allergic, they're both panicked that one day it'll break out in me, too. But as long as I always let someone know I'm going into the bees, and to come checking whether I'm still on my feet after twenty minutes, I refuse to be additionally scared about that.) Before I got into beekeeping, I was only stung by a bee once in my life - everything else was wasps (and mosquitos, of course :P).
Yeah, that's really it! Poor things. I mean, I know they don't have much of a lifespan anyway, but it's still such a waste. (I feel sorry even for the drones - my colonies have begun to kick them out, so now I find starving drones all over the garden ;_;). There should be some sort of magic beekeeper's song to let them know that you're a friend...
I'm not sure the English word for it ... the term that's coming to my mind is nuc: a small colony with a queen, brood, some drones, and workers used to establish a new hive. But I don't think that's quite the same thing ...
I like to go into the bees with minimal equipment. For one thing, at this time of year, it is bloody hot out, and I'm honestly more worried about heatstroke than getting stung!
My arms are all swollen and itchy today. They don't hurt but they itch like crazy!
Sounds about like what you'd have 3-4 weeks after starting an Ableger - once the workers have made a new queen, and that queen managed to succesfully make her virgin flight (if that's the right word... direct translation again) and return, and started laying eggs. So I guess nuc (is that an abbreviation or a cool native word, btw?) would be the correct term for what I started with - they already were queen-right at that point.
Heh, same here! Not so bad that you'd risk heatstroke wearing a veil (a full suit... now that's a different matter!), but still hot enough to make every extra bit of clothing unpleasant. While it was really really hot, I actually preferred going to the bees around dusk so I wouldn't sweat like crazy while lifting the boxes... disadvantage of that, of course, was that ALL the bees were at home so it was a bit of a challenge to handle everything without crushing bees. >_>
The healing itch! I hate itching more than I hate the stinging pain, to be honest. Some people find that ribwort helps against the stinging and itching, apparently, but I have no idea whether it's growing where you live? (Over here, it's a common weed.)
Ironically, she only stung me once I had shaken my hair open - apparently by then she decided she had enough of all the dancing around, so when she got out of my hair she stung me in the jaw. Meanwhile, other bees had been alerted and two more stung me in the face before I managed to get the smoker and neutralise the alarm pheromones.
Fortunately, even from the start my body didn't react much to the stings - it naturally hurt, for about half an hour, and felt hot to the touch, but there was not much swelling (in the face, what's more!). Supposedly a beekeeper needs about 10 - 20 stings to get to that point. So I felt sorry for the poor bee - it needn't have stung! it needn't have died - and didn't suffer much. From the sting, anyway! I was VERY embarrassed at having dropped my stuff like that. >_> So kudos to you for staying calm and finishing your work first!
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I'm thinking your situation sounds much scarier! :D Bees in the face ... not fun. (I thought you might scold me for not wearing a veil, but it seems you weren't either! :D It was too hot for all that today, although I did put it on when we went back to finish putting the hive together, which took all of one minute, thankfully.)
I've been stung so many times (as a kid who wanted to be an entomologist and played with bees ... only four times as a beekeeper) that I'm really not afraid of it. I think that helped today. :)
I always feel bad for the bees who die, they think, protecting their hive. I wish I could tell them I mean no harm! :(
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This year I'm more paranoid (bloody hormones, seriously), so I'm wearing the veil and a baggy long jacket. I hope that I'll go back to a more relaxed attitude once the baby is born and I only have to worry about myself. (As my mother and grandmother are allergic, they're both panicked that one day it'll break out in me, too. But as long as I always let someone know I'm going into the bees, and to come checking whether I'm still on my feet after twenty minutes, I refuse to be additionally scared about that.)
Before I got into beekeeping, I was only stung by a bee once in my life - everything else was wasps (and mosquitos, of course :P).
Yeah, that's really it! Poor things. I mean, I know they don't have much of a lifespan anyway, but it's still such a waste. (I feel sorry even for the drones - my colonies have begun to kick them out, so now I find starving drones all over the garden ;_;). There should be some sort of magic beekeeper's song to let them know that you're a friend...
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I like to go into the bees with minimal equipment. For one thing, at this time of year, it is bloody hot out, and I'm honestly more worried about heatstroke than getting stung!
My arms are all swollen and itchy today. They don't hurt but they itch like crazy!
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Heh, same here! Not so bad that you'd risk heatstroke wearing a veil (a full suit... now that's a different matter!), but still hot enough to make every extra bit of clothing unpleasant. While it was really really hot, I actually preferred going to the bees around dusk so I wouldn't sweat like crazy while lifting the boxes... disadvantage of that, of course, was that ALL the bees were at home so it was a bit of a challenge to handle everything without crushing bees. >_>
The healing itch! I hate itching more than I hate the stinging pain, to be honest. Some people find that ribwort helps against the stinging and itching, apparently, but I have no idea whether it's growing where you live? (Over here, it's a common weed.)
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