Get yourself stung. it's good for you?

[Erichalfbee]

Then there’s this from Mike on the importance of getting stung.

 

[charentejohn]

Don't like the idea of no veil, always seem to go for the face generally, and why is it often my ear. Glasses won't help as they land and walk, just to make that point, may make it worse if they go behind the glass.
Never heard of people becoming ill from washing a bee suit ? Mine regularly, because I'm messy, ends up on the back of a chair in the kitchen. I am not at the hives often but it was there a while and getting really grubby, eventually got told to wash it. Getting stung weekly ? I rarely get stung but it never bothers me, fades after 5 mins, so don't think doing it regularly will help. If you have a severe reaction then best to avoid all stings.

Best purchase ever was a zip up bee jacket and cheap veil hat. It all depends on their mood when working around the hives, currently only a few coming and going, guards just inside the entrance so normally won't bother with it unless 'buzzed'. At 2pm onwards I would use the jacket as busy at the entrance (rush hour) but not worried, just in case I annoy one but the just ignore me as better things to do. I wear gloves normally but take them off if I need to, by then I will have seen how they are reacting.
For mowing if they are out in strength I would put on a veil just in case, protect those ears... Scot has a point about mowing or anything like that, keep moving, as once you stop they start to wonder what you are. I was doing fine this spring then (battery strimmer) I stopped in front of them to remove a couple of stubborn bits of grass and.....guess what. Next time, depending where it is, I will try to let them get the stinger free.

 

[North End Bees]

Then there’s this from Mike on the importance of getting stung.

Thanks for the clip. I had heard about beekeepers' spouses becoming allergic after years of washing suits but I couldn't remember where I'd got it from.
Makes perfect sense.

 

[Apple]

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5192195/
Kounis syndrome........ sadly happened to a pest controller ( and beekeeper) when tackling a swarm this summer!

Wear a Sherriff sting proof suit, Marigolds and Dunlop wellington boots... the ones with metal toecaps!

 

[madasafish]

Thanks for the clip. I had heard about beekeepers' spouses becoming allergic after years of washing suits but I couldn't remember where I'd got it from.
Makes perfect sense.

Jackets hung up in cold garage away from people...
I wash my own jacket.. Solution of soda crystal in warm water in bucket overnight. Then drained and straight into washing machine..

Then hung on washing line outside or in garage if wet.


I may be a man but I can operate a washing machine...and hang clothes on a washing line...

 

[North End Bees]

I may be a man but I can operate a washing machine...and hang clothes on a washing line...

Madasafish family breathes a sigh of relief

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

Thanks for the clip. I had heard about beekeepers' spouses becoming allergic after years of washing suits

SWMBO won't make me a cup of tea let alone wash my suit, Since I left home way back when I have always washed all my own clothes - so that doesn't explain her severe reactions.

 

[Newbeeneil]

SWMBO won't make me a cup of tea let alone wash my suit, Since I left home way back when I have always washed all my own clothes - so that doesn't explain her severe reactions.

We have always made our kids (2 boys, 1 girl) do their own washing since they were teenagers. In our house we all had our own laundry baskets and if you wanted yours washed you made sure you got your washing in the machine first. The missus would always hang it out for the kids but it certainly made them think if they had no clean clothes to go out with their mates of a weekend or had no soccer kit!
They are all very proficient with the laundry equipment in their own homes (one of them still washing his own football kit at 40!) they are probably more au fait with the machines than their better halfs.

 

[coffindodger]

" If I inspect a hive with NO vail then I always were glass's as this protects your eye's "
Please - NO. A bee trapped behind the glasses will panic and sting. Please always wear a veil if opening a hive.

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

" If I inspect a hive with NO vail then I always were glass's as this protects your eye's "
Please - NO. A bee trapped behind the glasses will panic and sting. Please always wear a veil if opening a hive.

If you use nothing else, at least use a simple veil - a sting up the nose is also an experience, completely debilitates you for thirty seconds or more which, if you're in the middle of mad bees is pretty bad news.

 

[The Poot in Somerset]

Jackets hung up in cold garage away from people...
I wash my own jacket.. Solution of soda crystal in warm water in bucket overnight. Then drained and straight into washing machine..

Then hung on washing line outside or in garage if wet.


I may be a man but I can operate a washing machine...and hang clothes on a washing line...

Impressive

 

[The Poot in Somerset]

SWMBO won't make me a cup of tea let alone wash my suit, Since I left home way back when I have always washed all my own clothes - so that doesn't explain her severe reactions.

Labi Siffre comes to mind - “It must be love, love, love..........”

 

[madasafish]

If you use nothing else, at least use a simple veil - a sting up the nose is also an experience, completely debilitates you for thirty seconds or more which, if you're in the middle of mad bees is pretty bad news.

Totally agree.. Stung once on septum (bridge between nostrils). Tears in eyes, utter pain...

Never again..

(bee entered veil from unseen tear)
I now check all my jackets and veils regularly.

 

[madasafish]

Impressive

Not really.

If I don't do it, my wife will not so never gets done..

Nothing worse than seeing a beekeeper in a white overall which is stained and dirty one week and worse the next and so on.. Looks like they don't care - and is bad for hygiene

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

If I don't do it, my wife will not so never gets done..

When I first moved away from home, I had no choice but to wash my own clothes, w hen I used to come home on the odd weekend, it was always with a bag of washing as I had no washing machine at my flat and white uniform shirts were a PITA to get sparkling clean, my grandmother used to insist on washing them for me (it gave her something to do) but I didn't want her killing herself doing the ironing so my mother told her that I was very particular about creases etc, especially in the sleeves of uniform shirts and as I had to iron them again after unpacking, it was pointless her doing it.
Fast forward to when I got married and obviously my grandmother had had the usual matronly chat with SWMBO because I came back from the airport one evening to find the laundry basket empty and SWMBO proudly stating "I've washed and ironed all your shirts..............................

.......but I didn't do the sleeves!"

 

[Erichalfbee]

Ironing?
What’s ironing?

 

[enrico]

And then when you knock your hives over...........I think I would have been dead now!

 

[Swarm]

..

 

[ShinySideUp]

I have been stung many time on the hands, arms, legs and once, when I was just doing a 'quick' inspection wearing trainers, on the foot; none of these stings caused much more than local pain and irritation. However, I have been stung on the face twice in two years near my eye and was unable to see through said eye for nearly two days each time such was the swelling -- and I wasn't even near the apiary at the time. I don't go without gloves, veil, suit, wellies at any time, ever, when inspecting bees. Even the most docile bees can have an off day.

 

[ShinySideUp]

Ironing?
What’s ironing?

I have nothing that needs ironing apart from my T shirts which I tend to wear on a damp day until the creases drop out