Attached to My Bees ... Literally

[dawn_felagund]

We had our first encounter with our bees in a bad mood today.

Comments

[indy1776]

Um… could you cut this please? *is phobic after being stung twice*

[dawn_felagund]

Done.

[indy1776]

Thank you!

[dawn_felagund]

No prob! It didn't even cross my mind that text-only would be bothersome to my critter-phobic friends, so I'll put all future bee-related posts under a cut. :)

[angelica_ramses]

*shudders* bees in the hair, bees on the neck. I would have been in a panic. I admire how you kept your cool under fire stinging.

[dawn_felagund]

I think most normal people would. ;) I'm glad to have had this experience today, believe it or not. It's good to know one's limits when working with the bees, methinks.

[drummerwench]

Fascinating! I'm sorry for both the bees and you. :-( I love bees, though we are unlikely to become formal beekeepers any time soon (informally is another matter altogether). Hope you don't develop allergies--that would be too bad!

[dawn_felagund]

That's my biggest fear, mostly because I've been stung so much, and I seem to recall that the more you're stung, the more susceptible you become. Well, I'm sure there are beekeepers out there who have been stung more than me (one beekeeper we heard speak at a beekeeper's meeting recently has been keeping bees for about 25 years and said she gets stung an average of one time whenever she goes into her hives) and are still kicking, so I'm hoping my fears are unfounded!

[lindahoyland]

That sounds very scary. I like bees but only at a safe distance.

[dawn_felagund]

It sounds worse than it was! Well, I might not be the best person to make that call ... :D but it all turned out okay!

[pandemonium_213]

These chapters in Dawn and Bobby's Most Excellent Adventures in Bee-keeping are very entertaining, stings and all. I adore honey bees. We had a hive in our orchard on the farm - a largely undisturbed hive that harbored a bee colony for many years. We never took honey from the hive, and just let the bees do their thing as wonderful pollinators of our apple and cherry trees. The bees would often drink at "the horse tank" as we called the big concrete trough from which the horse and the cattle drank their water (also the home of large goldfish that ate mosquito larvae). Some bees would fall in, and as a little kid who loved them, I made it a point of rescuing them. Even under wet duress, the gentle honey bees never stung me

[dawn_felagund]

Thank you! I've enjoyed writing up our adventures! :)

I frequently have to rescue bees from the sugar water in their feeder when I change it. I've only been stung once ... and it was my fault. She fell into the grass, and when I picked her up, I wasn't paying attention and caught her between the grass and my hand. And she stung me. I deserved it--I should have been paying more attention!

I don't think I've ever been stung by a bumblebee; mostly yellowjackets and wasps. Honeybees only when I do something wrong to cause it.

The itchiness ... my arms are puffy and so itchy today. I woke up at 3:30 AM, digging at them in my sleep and had to put on cortisone because I was afraid I'd scratch myself up and be a bloody mess in the morning!