Budding Cottage

Well, the first sting was on the wrist, and through a glove, from Hive G.  That was okay, a tingle, some redness which faded rapidly leaving just a faint sensation.  However the second sting was not the same.

The second sting is from a bee probably from the same Hive – I popped over to visit John, the orchard owner, ironically with a tube of antihistamine cream, (since he mentioned previously that he had been stung).  I decided to stand quietly under the apple trees and watch activity at the hives over 10 feet away.  Sure enough, one of the bees immediately made a beeline for me and began to dive bomb my head, stinging my ear and following me even into the house some distance away.  This sting hurt a lot and continued to hurt for a good 20 mins to half an hour, even though John lent me the cream, and I put ice on it later.  John managed to pull out the venom sac after about 10 minutes – so I got a full dose. Whilst it felt normal later, over night it was very tender to sleep on, and this morning my ear is still bright red, swollen with some redness running down my neck below my ear.  Most annoying and unexpected.

I am least fond of Hive G and they have form – I am hoping that getting them used to handling and being gentle will help.  So far I have some excuses for them – not being handled since sept 2010; having to be moved 8 June, having June and dodgy weather to contend with, having been bumped from their queen excluder sticking, being jarred as Chris tried to unstick them, and having a rear exit due to damaged wood may all add to their issues.

Mitigation: Picking good weather to open them up and ensuring I am calm might also help – but they did sting Chris too, though his gloves on 21st – so they do not have a good track record.  We shall see.  They may require requeening which sounds very complicated.  What I do think is that I will ensure I have as many layers as possible on before I work the hive. I may see if “fabi spray” helps with them at all.  I hope that this does not start to affect John’s ability to work in his own orchard.

In the meantime I have a hot ear and neck, feel a bit under the weather (but I had a cold before) and may have to wear a  hat for a bit.

This entry was posted on Thursday, June 23rd, 2011 at 12:48 pm and is filed under General, Hive 2 Apiary 2. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.