Yesterday was Field Day for my beekeeping class. We started the day by talking about extracting honey and collecting swarms. It was fun, tasty, and interesting. But what I was really looking forward to was seeing the hives opened. I had worked up my courage to ask teacher Steve if I could be stung on purpose. I thought if I could just get it over with, I wouldn’t be so scared of it anymore.
The first hive we looked at was Steve’s. He had brought it a couple of days earlier. It hadn’t been opened all winter, so it was kind of messy with “burr comb”, that is, comb that was built on top of the frames. But the colony was alive. My eight-year-old friend had three younger siblings. They all stood CRAZY close to the hive while Steve was working.
Steve passed around a couple of frames. The bees were very docile.
The second hive we opened was permanently located at Marshy Point. They were in good health too. While we looked at them, they started flying around a lot. I got kind of nervous, so I stepped away from the hive a little bit. Then suddenly a bee was stuck on the back of my head. It was behind my right ear, and it was buzzing like crazy. I tried to be calm, because that’s what Steve said to do, but yikes! One of my classmates got the bee to fly away. Whew.
Then a bee got stuck in the same place on the back of my head behind my ear. BZZZ! BZZZ! I started walking to get away, and they were suddenly on my face! I felt two bees on my nose. Was that a pin-prick on my right nostril? There’s a bee going up my left nostril! AAHH! Walk toward Steve. He can help me. Steve grabbed the bee in my nose and pulled it out. Then he said, “Were you stung? Oh. Yes, you were.” He scratched my right nostril to take the stinger out. I walked farther away from the hive to avoid bees and to stand silently embarrassed about the gutteral fear noises I made while I had a bee in my nose.
Here’s how I’d describe the sting: The initial jab was nothing. I hardly even felt it. In the first minute, there was a burning sensation. I would compare it to sunburn. My nose felt like it swelled a little, but it wasn’t visibly larger. It was visibly red. My eye watered from the sting, but wasn’t otherwise affected. The sting wasn’t that bad. The scariest part was the buzzing noise. Steve’s wife stood with me while I watched from a distance of forty yards (any closer and the bees had continued to attack the back of my head). She told me that wearing a veil makes it easier. You still get stung, but you feel a lot more safe.
I think I might actually do this. But I’m going to wait until next summer. I want to read up on the subject, and I need to save some money. The start up cost for two hives (which Steve recommends) is around $700. I can save that much over the course of a year.
Did it bother you any that you were actually ATTACKED by bees without provoking them in the least??? Because Steve said they wouldn’t do that. HE SAID THEY WOULDN’T DO THAT!!!
And did it bother you that they didn’t attack anyone else?
Maybe bees and bunnies are friends.
There was another guy who had them going down the collar of his sweatshirt. He got panicky and took it off. I’m glad somebody else showed fear.
Steve said sometimes they like the smell of certain shampoos or deodorants. Maybe Head and Shoulders is among their favorites.
If you cut a fresh slice of raw onion and rub that on the sting immediately after you get stung, it all goes away. It works. I’ve done it several times.
Also, the onion has to be harvested, “in the dark of the moon.”
There is a chemical reason for this, but you’d have to ask the chemist.
We can’t the chemist doesn’t know how to use a computer.
It neutralizes the formic acid in the bee sting.
Hey, I know a guy named Charles.
HOLY CATS!!!!!!! In your NOSE?!?!?! I would have run screaming like a…. like person with a bee in their nose!!! I’m incredibly impressed that you didn’t just leave right then.
Your brain must be sweet – they were going at it from every angle.
Maybe they were zombie bees. braiiins… braiiins…
You are an incredibly strong warrior!! Strong you have become!! Not many people have had a live bee in their nose, and have lived to tell about it!!!
And I’ve really enjoyed learning about bee colonies thru you!! Amazing stuff!! May I suggest for your next class, studying these cool creatures…they would make an excellent addition to your garden & I hear rabbits fear them!
http://missbakersbiologyclass.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2007/09/tarsier.jpg
(PS–AWESOME certificate!)
I was also wondering if, since you do have a smiley face on the back of your head…maybe the bees were confused as to which side of your head was the front?!?!
http://bradaptation.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/08/haircut-back-8-29-08.jpg
Bee Awesome, Bee Cool, Bee Stung, Bee Brave, Bee Expensive, Bee Sweet!
You eyebrows look especially bushy in the glow of sting and sunlinght.
How do you feel today?
Is that a little tear running down your cheek?
…and just as many of us have said on our wedding day, “…wearing a veil makes it easier. You still get stung, but you feel a lot more safe.”
(I don’t really mean that. If anything, poor Thurman was the one who took the stinger…)
hehe
Say! Does your certificate mean we can now call you a real apiarist – er – apist – uh – apiary dude? (What is the right word for that anywho?)