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stings

3K views 34 replies 13 participants last post by  dmacmtb 
#1 ·
Every beekeeper has that one thing the done wrong and the girls let them know it by having a sting fest on you. Mine happen to be when I had been keeping bees 2 years and I had a hot hive that was a honey producing machine. It was neeeding a couple more supers. I took the jeep out with the top off pulled up behind the hive got out. When I got ready to put the supers I had realized I had not brought my smoker or veil. I had on shorts and flip flops and no shirt. Did I mention there was an approaching thunder storm. ( I always try to live by the rule never take the lid of a hive when you wouldnt want the roof taken off your house) Any how i decided i could super it up real quick and be alright. I go the top off then the inner cover reached for the first super and thats when they got me. I took 30 or 40 stings. I took off thru a sunflower field to get them off me. so here I stand in the middle of a sunflower field stung up jeep parked 20 foot from a open hive of mad bees. I walked a big circle around the hive to get to jeep. I got to about the rear bumper and they found me again. I dove in the jeep took off and drove out of the bees. stopped and picked stingers again. Then I did what I should have done to begin with. Drive back into town and get my suit and smoker so I could button up the hive
 
#27 ·
p.s. About 2 or 3 wks ago I got stung on my belly right above or at the belt line. A fully planted sting it was. I find that getting stung in fatty tissue is quite a bit more painful than muscular tissue or the hands.

It was hard to get the stinger out too. And I may not have gotten the whole thing out because I believe it got infected. It still shows a welt and discoloration. I've never had a sting do that before.

It didn't help to be right where I would sintch my belt. Well, really to the right side of there.
 
#31 ·
My covered in stings moment came yesterday and tonight.... both. Yesterday did a cutout, so I guess it's kinda normal, but this cutout was so massive it was worse than normal. I stopped counting after a couple dozen stings... through the suit/pants. Then tonight, same bees wouldn't stay in the new hive yesterday and clustered on the outside instead, making the neighbors upset. One complained, so this morning I'm going to move them, along with 3 others to an out-yard that has lots of space. Trouble is I had to set them up on the pallet... and I couldn't sleep because I was so worried about them. So 2 am I awoke and decided to go ahead and re-hive them and palletize the rest... HA! Yeah, of course that was a bad idea. Took at least a dozen more stings. At least now all I have to do when dawn does break is seal off the hives and move 'em.
 
#32 ·
Bens-Bees said:
I couldn't sleep because I was so worried about them. So 2 am I awoke and decided to go ahead and re-hive them and palletize the rest... HA! Yeah, of course that was a bad idea. Took at least a dozen more stings. At least now all I have to do when dawn does break is seal off the hives and move 'em.
would it be a fair assumption on our part that when we read in books that bees crawl at night and try to get in to sting we should take that to be a true statement :D
 
#34 ·
riverrat said:
would it be a fair assumption on our part that when we read in books that bees crawl at night and try to get in to sting we should take that to be a true statement :D
Bees fly at night too... and when they do... they lock onto a target like a pit-bull and won't let up until they deposit their stinger in something. But certainly many others were crawling around... right up my pant legs... :Dancing:
 
#35 ·
a not quite sting story...

Early on in my first year keeping bees when I was still very nervous about getting stung I had a bee get in my veil. Interesting part was he went straight down, headfirst, into my ear. So I hear this extremely loud buzzing sound. I throw the veil off, shake my head, run in circles, jump up & down; but the sound is still there. After a minute or two I finally stop. I take a deep breath, put two fingers up to my ear, and pull out a bee who flies away. She was probably more scared than I was. Still can't believe I didn't get a sting out of that one.

Now if you want some stings... have a bear knock over a hive at dusk, let it get really dark, and then go try to reassemble the hive. That's a nightmare I still really can't talk about.
 
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