Record of Stings

When we first created this page, we thought that it would be updated often. As it turns out, our first bees were extremely gentle. We worked our bees in the Top Bar Hive in that first summer of 2000 with shorts, no shirts and only sometimes a veil. Now that we have 5 hives in our small apiary, we always wear our veils, long pants and jackets when we work the bees. Even if the bees we are working are behaving themselves, with so much traffic in the small area, someone else may get a little feisty or just too curious.

Number of stings since June 2000
Robert Dustin
26 14
 

Robert
  1. June, 2000 - I squeezed a bee (quite accidentally) against a top bar and got stung on the right middle finger. Hey bee! Violence never solves anything!
  2. 9/23/00 - We picked up our first Langstroth Hive at a friend's apiary and I removed my veil too soon. I got stung on the left temple of my head when a bee became entangled in my hair. My wife asked if it hurt the bee since it was trying to sting such a hard object. Yeah, she's a real comedienne.
  3. 9/24/00 - I was cleaning honey super frames of propolis and other bees started robbing. In the eating frenzy, I accidentally squeezed a bee and it stung me on the right thumb. Hey, it was an accident!
  4. 9/26/00 - Dustin and I were putting an empty super on the LH. I was placing the outer cover back on the hive and moved too quickly resulting in a sting on the left wrist. I almost received another sting in the head as I took my veil off too soon and a bee got tangled in my hair (hey, at least I still have hair!). This time I was lucky as Dusty was able to free it before it stung me.
  5. 10/4/00 - I removed the empty super from the LH and decided to store it for the winter. In the process of removing bees from the frames with the bee brush, I got stung on the right index finger.
  6. October, 2000 - I was walking bare foot around the hive and a bee crawled on my foot. I paid it no mind and then when I moved it stung me on the big toe on my right foot.
  7. 3/6/01 - I was crouched down by the hive watching the bees return when one stung me on the right forearm. This was clearly an unprovoked attack.
  8. 3/24/01 - I was watching the bees rushing to return to the hive before the rain came when one stung me on the right side of my nose. The entire right side of my face swelled up as I had to go inside to look in the mirror to get the stinger out. By that time, it had pumped me full of venom. My face looked just like it does when my  wife task mistress thinks I've been too much of a wise guy.
  9. 4/7/01 - Dustin and I were inspecting the LH when I stepped on a bee and it stung me in the bottom of the left foot. So that's why one should were shoes - duh! [See sting #6.]
  10. 4/14/01 - Dustin and I decided to place spacers on the inner cover to raise the telescoping outer cover for more ventilation. I lifted off the top cover and, while placing the second spacer on the inner cover, a bee jumped onto my right wrist and stung me just under my glove. Luckily, we attended a crawfish boil later that night where plenty of "anesthetic" was on hand. ;-)
  11. 5/31/01 - My neighbor and I had just begun to transfer my frames into his hive body when I got stung on the exposed part of my left wrist just above my glove but below my shirt sleeve.
  12. 6/12/01 - While re-installing a super on LH1a a bee stung me on the exposed part of my right wrist just above my glove but below my shirt sleeve.
  13. 6/20/01 -  I was removing the feeder bottle on the nuc hive when one bee stung me on the right forearm. Guess it hasn't heard "Never bite the hand that feeds you."
  14. 6/27/01 - While lifting a super, a bee stung me on the left wrist. It seems they really go for the area of wrist that is exposed between my jacket and gloves. With three stings this month, I'm noticing that I'm swelling less and less with each sting.
  15. 7/5/01 - My neighbor helped me move his hive to his backyard. I was wearing cut-offs and got stung behind the right knee. (After we had finished and were just sitting around saying how easy the move had been!) There was very little swelling and by the next day almost all swelling had disappeared.
  16. 7/10/01 - While washing up after our cement hauling trips, I stepped on a bee in the grass. It stung me on the bottom of the middle of my left foot. Even though this is a tender area, almost no swelling occurred and it only felt like a small stone bruise that night.
  17. 8/5/01 - See 20. below.
  18. 8/5/01 - See 20. below.
  19. 8/5/01 - See 20. below.
  20. 8/5/01 - While examining LH1a and finding that it was queen-less, I got stung through my suit. Once in the top of the head, once in the front of the left shoulder, once in the right index finger and once in the right knee.
  21. 8/13/01 - See 22. below.
  22. 8/13/01 - While working the 5-frame nuc bare-handed, I got stung twice in the back of the right hand. One got me right between the base of the first two fingers. This time it hurt a little more and I had some moderate swelling and that confounded itching.
  23. 9/5/01 - While working on a frame for the TBH, I got stung inside my veil on the top right of my head. My wife said that , with my hard head, it probably hurt the bee worse than me. (If she does ever get stung, I know right where I want it to be....)
  24. 9/15/01 - While placing comb from the top bars into empty frames, I got stung on the right wrist.
  25. 9/16/01 - I went into the apiary (bare footed) to retrieve a garbage can. A bee crawling on the ground jumped onto my right foot and stung me.
  26. 9/29/01- I was making a galvanized tin cover for the 5-frame nuc's cover in the garage. A bee must have been on the cover as I got stung in the left hand's ring finger.

Dustin
  1. 11/5/00 - Dustin finally got his first sting! While we were rearranging hive parts, a bee crawled up under his cut-offs and stung him on the left thigh. It's about time they started stinging him too as I was just about to sue them for age discrimination in the apiary.
  2. 4/21/01 - Dustin forgot to tuck the legs of his coveralls into his boots. This allowed a bee to crawl up his leg and sting him on the right thigh. I noticed that he did tuck his pants leg in once he had come back outside from removing the stinger.
  3. 6/10/01 - While removing an empty feeder jar from the nuc hive, Dustin got stung in the tip of his ring finger (hint: wear gloves). He said it hurt a little more than usual due to all of the nerve endings in the finger. However, he yanked out the stinger quickly and very little swelling occurred.
  4. 7/10/01 - While trying to kill some stray foragers, one snuck into the sleeve of Dustin's coveralls and stung him on the left forearm. He swelled a little from this sting.
  5. 7/10/01 - Dustin got his second sting of the day! While hauling cement past some stray foragers, he accidentally trapped one between the sole of his sandal and the bottom of his left foot. When he took his next step,,,well you know what happened then.
  6. 7/14/01 - Dustin got stung on the top of the left foot. He was wearing sandals and walking past the bees in the apiary while installing entrance feeders.
  7. 7/29/01 - See 10. below
  8. 7/29/01 - See10. below
  9. 7/29/01 - See 10. below.
  10. 7/29/01 - Dustin was stung four times today in the process of removing the honey supers from LH1a. One stung him through his coveralls in the middle of his back. One stung him on his right palm through his rubber glove. One stung him twice as it got inside his coveralls and stung him on the front of the right shoulder. One sting was mild and didn't fully penetrate, but the next was embedded well and he couldn't get to it until the honey removal process was over (about 30 minutes). The stings were barely noticeable the next day, didn't itch and only had slight swelling on the ones on his shoulder. His immunity is building nicely. I worked in cut-offs and bare feet and didn't get stung once!
  11. 8/5/01 - See 13. below
  12. 8/5/01 - See 13. below
  13. 8/5/01 - While examining LH1a and finding that it was queen-less, Dustin got stung with bees getting in his suit. Once in the front of the right shoulder and twice on the back of his left shoulder.
  14. 8/13/01 - Dustin got stung in the back of his right calf. He was just wearing shorts. This sting, like mine on the same day, seemed to be more potent as Dustin also experienced some moderate swelling.