When I kept bees in the 90's the last brood that I raised was rather nasty and stung me 12 times in one outing. (They had a disease called foul brood and I burned the hive shortly thereafter as recommended by the Ohio Agricultural extension office). I bought a bottle of Benadryl gel and liberally spread it over my wounds.
Fast forward to last year. I find this cute little bee hive on line and decide to raise bees again because pollinators in general are in a crisis state worldwide. After an episode in which the hive is stolen by thieves from our porch after being delivered and we subsequently recover it with the help of the Westerville Police I get Carnolian bees (native to Serbia) from an apiary out of Georgia. We enjoy a lovely summer with them pollinating all the blooms in our yard and nary a sting. I open and close bee hive with no smoker and often times without any gear or at least bare handed. Shame on me. For some unknown reason (probably death of the queen) the hive departs and leaves me with an empty bee box at the end of September.
After a nightmarish year of family medical crisis and death I debate whether or not to refill the hive. Leaning toward not I remind myself that pollinators in general are in a crisis state worldwide and tell myself to suck it up and get moving. I order lovely Carnolian bees from the same apiary that we got such wonderful bees from last year. I'm given the choice of April 9, 16, 23rd for delivery. I choose April 9th as on the outside chance that the lovely bees might sting me I don't want to be covered in welts as we have an event to attend the last weekend in April. My first sign should have been that it snowed and was 24 degrees on bee pick up day....in April My second sign should have been that I accidently released the queen by taking the plug out of the wrong end of her cage when I installed the hive. According to best practices I should have let the bees release her by eating the plug made of candy out of the other end of her cage although some internet sources state that this isn't really a huge make it or break it mistake. On day two after installation I open the hive to check the food supply and find it depleted with more cold weather on the way. It rained all day Monday and Tuesday night we had a work thing that I had to attend. I was left with no choice so I put on my head gear and gloves at lunch time yesterday and headed out to open the hive. Half way across the yard I say to myself - crap I should have put rubber bands around my ankles to keep a bee from flying up my pant leg, which has never happened previously, though having the bands is the usual protection protocol. But I'm in a hurry and I say to myself - I don't have time this will only take a minute. I open the hive and all the bees had swarmed to the top of the hive, probably for warmth, and onto the food dish that I had placed in the empty top compartment. I take out the food dish put frames into empty compartment, close up the hive and congratulate myself on a job well done. I walk back toward the house and onto the deck. When I step up onto the deck the bee that had flown up my left pant leg stings me with a vengeance. I drop my pants right there in the yard and scrap off the stinger. I'm now standing in the middle of the backyard in my underwear and the dogs are yapping like mad men at the back door. Crap #@! I say to myself. But I didn't think much more about it until last night when I was in my bathrobe and getting ready to take a shower and Andrew says to me - what in the hell did you do to your leg? I explain. Then he says- I was going to tell you that I didn't think the bees that we got this year were as friendly as the ones we had last year. This morning I get up and I can hardly bend my knee and my legs itches like the devil. I say don't we have some Benadryl around here. He rummages through the linen closet and produces a bottle of gel...with an expiration date of 16 years ago when I was last stung. I made a trip to Walgreens at lunch time for some new Benadryl....Needless to say I will be in full gear at all times this year. My own fault; can't blame it on the bees.
Fast forward to last year. I find this cute little bee hive on line and decide to raise bees again because pollinators in general are in a crisis state worldwide. After an episode in which the hive is stolen by thieves from our porch after being delivered and we subsequently recover it with the help of the Westerville Police I get Carnolian bees (native to Serbia) from an apiary out of Georgia. We enjoy a lovely summer with them pollinating all the blooms in our yard and nary a sting. I open and close bee hive with no smoker and often times without any gear or at least bare handed. Shame on me. For some unknown reason (probably death of the queen) the hive departs and leaves me with an empty bee box at the end of September.
After a nightmarish year of family medical crisis and death I debate whether or not to refill the hive. Leaning toward not I remind myself that pollinators in general are in a crisis state worldwide and tell myself to suck it up and get moving. I order lovely Carnolian bees from the same apiary that we got such wonderful bees from last year. I'm given the choice of April 9, 16, 23rd for delivery. I choose April 9th as on the outside chance that the lovely bees might sting me I don't want to be covered in welts as we have an event to attend the last weekend in April. My first sign should have been that it snowed and was 24 degrees on bee pick up day....in April My second sign should have been that I accidently released the queen by taking the plug out of the wrong end of her cage when I installed the hive. According to best practices I should have let the bees release her by eating the plug made of candy out of the other end of her cage although some internet sources state that this isn't really a huge make it or break it mistake. On day two after installation I open the hive to check the food supply and find it depleted with more cold weather on the way. It rained all day Monday and Tuesday night we had a work thing that I had to attend. I was left with no choice so I put on my head gear and gloves at lunch time yesterday and headed out to open the hive. Half way across the yard I say to myself - crap I should have put rubber bands around my ankles to keep a bee from flying up my pant leg, which has never happened previously, though having the bands is the usual protection protocol. But I'm in a hurry and I say to myself - I don't have time this will only take a minute. I open the hive and all the bees had swarmed to the top of the hive, probably for warmth, and onto the food dish that I had placed in the empty top compartment. I take out the food dish put frames into empty compartment, close up the hive and congratulate myself on a job well done. I walk back toward the house and onto the deck. When I step up onto the deck the bee that had flown up my left pant leg stings me with a vengeance. I drop my pants right there in the yard and scrap off the stinger. I'm now standing in the middle of the backyard in my underwear and the dogs are yapping like mad men at the back door. Crap #@! I say to myself. But I didn't think much more about it until last night when I was in my bathrobe and getting ready to take a shower and Andrew says to me - what in the hell did you do to your leg? I explain. Then he says- I was going to tell you that I didn't think the bees that we got this year were as friendly as the ones we had last year. This morning I get up and I can hardly bend my knee and my legs itches like the devil. I say don't we have some Benadryl around here. He rummages through the linen closet and produces a bottle of gel...with an expiration date of 16 years ago when I was last stung. I made a trip to Walgreens at lunch time for some new Benadryl....Needless to say I will be in full gear at all times this year. My own fault; can't blame it on the bees.
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