I had a friend stop by yesterday. He once had 100 bee hives when he lived back east and he was anxious to see my top bar hive. He had never seen one, so we jumped in the car and went for a visit. He walked into my bee barn with no protection, no gloves, no veil, no alien astronaut bee suit. I’ve been just using a veil lately myself, but I figured, OK… I can do that and in I went. We messed around a bit, cut out one of the hair clips I had hung the original comb on to get them started. Everything was cool. Then I went for the other bar, the one farthest in with another hair clip and bam! I got stung under my chin. I pinched her and threw her to the ground, and continued on, but decided to close up shop since they were getting louder. A few minutes later we got in the car and I glanced in the mirror. The stinger was still in my chin. Crap. I grabbed it out, though I know I should have scraped it. Needless to say, I have a huge, hot, itchy double chin today. ugh. Not fun. He talked about getting stung 40 or 50 times at once… and I just can’t see that! This is miserable enough! Next time… the veil is going back on!
The good news, though, is my one hive has all sorts of baby bees in it. We didn’t break into Mesopotamia. Baby bees are great! and I’m excited. They’re building comb fast and furious and I can expand and give them more room soon AGAIN!
I should have cut out the smaller hair clip as well, but I didn’t. The one on the first comb???? It may just get left in place if they’re going to sting me! I probably should have cut it out sooner so that I didn’t have to dig clear up to the front and create such a disturbance. Live and learn, I guess.
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My boss, who is a beekeeper (because I gave him a beekeeping class last year for his birthday!!!!) read where putting Honey on the Sting kills the itch and inflammation, and it WORKS! It is best if it is honey from the same hive the bee came from, but any honey will work.
Kind of a ‘hair of the dog’ remedy.
Hmmm. Best applied AT HOME though, I’m sure! Don’t need more bees flying around!
What is a hair comb?
Mary, I used *hair clips* to hold old comb on the top bars to get the bees started… sometimes I misspeak and say *hair combs* instead… ooops!
Oh, dear…I hope your chin calms down soon. So sorry you got stung while
investigating the progress in your hive. Nice to know there are lots of baby bees, though.
I read just recently that a HOT spoon placed on the sting site will denature the proteins in the venom and counter the sting.
Sounds like I could just lay one out in the sun while I’m in the bee barn… I’ll try it, hopefully, not burning myself in the process! 😉
I’ve only tried this on wasp stings but it works wonders. Get some tobacco and mix a bit of water (old timers used spit…) and put it on your sting. The “sting” disappears immediately and all you have to contend with is the itch… Now that my husband and I are non-smokers, we would have a hard time getting some tobacco in a timely manner. If it works, you may want to store a pack of cigarettes in your bee barn!
I tried a wet tea bag… I may have to try this though! I’ll have to see who I can steal a few ciggies from!