Bye Bye Bees

Bye, Bye Bees

Star Beekeeper To Quit Beekeeping

My Yorkshire beekeeper cousin has won numerous awards in the last two years from his local Wharfdale beekeeping association for his honey, heather honey, honey cake, photography and as best newcomer.  What a star!

But last season and this season he has received stings that have resulted in trips to hospital.

Requeening - Simon & Roger
Simon & Roger: Re-queening Aggressive Hives

Are you IgG or IgE?  It makes a difference

I have written before about bee stings which are made up of: several toxic substances, several agents that help the venom spread around the body, protein irritants, steroids and an alarm pheromone!

bee sting

In that post I explained that there are two types of people, those who produce more immunoglobulin G (IgG) and those who produce more immunoglobulin E (IgE).  Those who produce more IgE suffer progressively worse from stings.  Those people who produce more IgG build up their resistance to stings.  It looks like my cousin produces more IgE.

He was very enthusiastic about beekeeping and he invested in a lot of gear but it looks likely that he might have to give it up.

I’m working on him with suggestions of EpiPens, BeePro suits and that his wife is around when he is inspecting … but the consequences of a bad reaction are potentially significant.  He is considering immunotherapy but it seems that the effort required and the less than perfect outcome may not be worth it.  Let’s hope that research in molecular biology find new ways of protecting beekeepers from anaphylactic reactions.

Simon is not alone.  Many, many new beekeepers discover in the first couple of years that they are so allergic to bee stings that they need to give it up.

Advice To Avoid Bee Stings

My top advice to all bee keepers is to avoid stings and hence de-risk the potential of experiencing worse and worse reactions.  At least it will delay the point at which you may have to give it up.  Here is what I suggest:

  1. Re-queen aggressive colonies.  I have had colonies so aggressive that it is worth leaving them and waiting until April to cull the old queen and re-queen from new source (mated queens are available from April). Read more: re-queening aggressive hives
  2. Always, always, always wear your bee suit, boots, gloves, thick clothes under the suit
  3. Buy a quality one piece bee suit (a Christmas present?).  The best are from Sherriff (a sponsor of this blog)
  4. If you are very allergic/worried and have the money buy the Sheriff BeePro suit, an ultra protective beekeeping suit has been specifically designed to protect those sensitive to bee stings.

Stay safe and have a great Christmas.

Read more: Simon’s Beekeeping Year In 2016

The Queen’s Beekeeper (John Chapple)

The Queen’s Beekeeper

I have just found out that the Queen has a beekeeper.  Why has no one told me before?!

John Chapple maintains hives at Buckingham Palace, Clarence House (Prince Charles’s residence), Lambeth Palace (Archbishop of Canterbury residence) plus some 40 hives in London’s’ Royal Parks.

He clearly knows how to look after a Queen or two.

Queen's Beekeeper (John Chappel) in white Sherriff Bee Suit with Patrice at  Lambeth Palace Apiary.
Queen’s Beekeeper (John Chapple) in white Sherriff Bee Suit with Patrice Munro at Lambeth Palace Apiary.
Photo by Scott Munro at Lightworks.tv Ltd

Do I Have Anything In Common With John?

Well … we’re both beekeepers, have beards and wear Sherriff bee suits (external link). That’s good enough for me.

Where our similarities diverge is that he’s an expert beekeeper, his beard is more impressive, my Sherriff beesuit is khaki and I’ve read that he barely flinches when stung by a bee, whilst I will definitely say something.

Maybe, one day, I’ll be a bit more like John.

Top 3 Reasons I’m Being Stung Less Often

I wrote about my Fear Of Bees for the April 2015 issue of the BBKA News and you may be wondering how my season is going from a “being stung” perspective.

Well.  The good news is that I have only been stung once so far, when the suit and shirt I was wearing were stretched tight across my back and a bee managed to get his stinger in.

The reasons I am being stung less are mainly down to the following:

  1. I’m less of an idiot and don’t attempt to do anything with the bees unless fully kitted out (suit, gloves, boots)
  2. My bees are a lot more gentle this year
  3. My new Apiarist Sherriff beesuit has proved bee tight and given me more confidence and pleasure working with the bees.  No bees in my bonnet yet.

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Bee Sting – Face Swollen, Eye Closed

Bee Sting – Face Swollen, Eye Closed

Don’t worry Dear Reader, not me, my Dad!

The honeybees I caught in the swarm trap must have left some pheromones on the roof of my parents shed and about 100 bees were hanging around their back garden the next day.  I think Dad has been getting over-confident with bees and this time he got too close.

Usually, when Dad gets stung, he hardly reacts, like some of the beekeepers on YouTube clips without any protective gear. However, he certainly reacted to this one which stung him 2cm above his eyebrow. He was fine for several hours, but the poison must have got out during the night and he woke up like this:

The Day After The Night Before
The Day After The Night Before

Later in the day he looked like this (his eye is beginning to open):

Bee Sting - Later In The Day
Bee Sting – Later In The Day

Two days later he looked a little bit better than above, but it’s not looking great for the Christening photos on Sunday (tomorrow).

Apiary Update

  • One hive, full of brood and bees with 3 supers; 1/2 full super
  • Three hives with laying queens, brood and stores; expanding into their brood boxes
  • Nuc with friend who will split one of his hives and give me some bees (Thanks Darren)
  • More details in My Apiary

Read More About Dad (these are all favourite posts)

More About Some Of My Bee Stings

BBKA News: Melissophobia – Fear Of Bees

Melissophobia (or Apiphobia) – Fear Of Bees

This article was first published in the newsletter of The British Beekeepers’ Association (No. 222 – April 2015).

I feel I need to come clean.  I have mixed emotions when inspecting bees, alternating between delight and wonder, to slightly nervous and occasional panic.

Melissophobia is an unreasonable fear of bees.  Surely, there should be a word for a reasonable fear?  With a particularly aggressive colony, my fear seems reasonable. Those little buzzing things sting.

Having a fear of bees is somewhat unfortunate for a beekeeper but it must be quite common. Surely most beekeepers heart beat increases when they hear the roar of 60,000 bees – especially if you have kamikaze bees.  Not all beekeepers can be the type that are happy to inspect their bees with little more than cotton wool in their nose and ears. Surely some, like me, are what they call metrosexuals (i.e. men who have been known to run away from spiders).

Fatalities due to honeybees are rare.  In October last year it was reported that a beekeeper in the UK (with known anaphylaxis) died of a honeybee sting and the article I read quoted an Office of National Statistics official that a man last died of a bee sting in 2012 in the UK. There seems to be a higher proportion of deaths attributable to bee stings in the USA, where in 2000, the World Health Organisation reported that, there were 54 deaths attributable to bee stings (from a population of 281 million people and where 90 people/year die of lightning strikes). Perhaps, this is due to an increased prevalence of Africanised bee.  So with these low rates of fatality it is apparent that my fear is not rational. I know that probably the worst I’ll get is some painful stings, a swollen leg and a lack of sympathy from my wife – but still, when you’re faced with a hive, it’s not just a bee you’re contending with, it’s thousands of them. Yes I know that the average adult can safely survive a thousand stings, but what if they ALL get me?!?

Facing The Fear

Of course the recommended treatment for phobias is to face your fear, something I will be doing quite a lot over the coming months, with the first inspection of the hives imminent.

This year though I’m going in prepared with my apiary armoury.

In my early days I had some lovely bees and thought that smoke was an unnecessary accessory. As the bees created stores and had something to defend I became a smoker.  I now have a bucket-sized smoker. I am resigned to being the Dot Cotton of beekeepers.

Smoking Hive
Smoking Like Dot Cotton

Clothes-wise, I have learnt that trainers with socks over jeans does not provide much protection especially when you stand in front of the hive entrance.  I have discovered that bees don’t sleep and that feeding at night does not mean that the bees won’t fly/pour out of the hive.

bee sting reaction
Bee Sting Reaction

I currently find myself with a particularly aggressive colony*. When I remove the crown board the bees surge upwards and pour out of the hive like a scene from my worst nightmare. They attack every weak spot.  Down my boots.  Through gloves.  They even sting the tips of my ears where they touch the suit.

I now wear marigolds under my regular gloves.  I tape up my boots. I wear thick shirts and jeans under my bee suit. I wash my gloves and clothes regularly to reduce any sting pheromones that might linger and that would initiate more attacks.  I have all the rumoured remedies on hand (onions, toothpaste, lemons and half the contents of Boots). Any pretence of me being a brave-beekeeper is well and truly annihilated.

When I do an inspection, of this aggressive hive, I’m in and out and do the minimum required. I have decided they are impossible to inspect after June.

My Skin Breaks Out In, Err, Hives!

Usually I go through the normal cycle of pain, swelling, itching and very tired for a few days if I’ve been stung by upwards of ten bees, but one time due to a combination of being stung and high anxiety – my skin broke out in, er, hives. It was so bad even my wife was sympathetic. This is all somewhat ironic considering I started beekeeping as a way to de-stress.

The solution is obviously to get some nicer bees. Ones that like their beekeeper and welcome a yearly raid of everything they’ve spent their little lives working towards.

My plan is to requeen as soon as possible this year (June) and an old boy has offered to come and jointly inspect the colony in April and perhaps requeen with some of his more gentle Queens.  I think he thinks I am either doing something terrible to the bees rather than me having a particularly aggressive colony.  Either way – it will be fantastic to see an experienced beekeeper working with this colony and see if he is able to charm them.

Advice

It’s always good to know how other beekeepers handle their hives. Have you found any impenetrable material to protect us from stings? How do you make your inspections less risky? If nothing else, how do you illicit more sympathy from your other halves when you do get stung? Do let me know if you have any ideas.

* When I wrote this article for BBKA News I did have an aggressive colony, but unfortunately I lost  it at the end of February (Post: Colony Post-Mortem).

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Aggressive Bees & A Physiological Reaction

Aggressive Bees & A Physiological Reaction

Aggressive Bees Produce More Honey?

Some people think aggressive bees make more honey but I have seen no evidence of this.  I have only experienced terrifying attacks and their relentless and uncanny ability to find any weak spots in my protective gear, which now includes marigold washing-up gloves under my leather gloves.  See video below.

I apologise for some muffled swearing at the end.  I thought I was fully protected and I thought bees only walked up … but apparently they can also walk down … down my boots in this case, plus they got one of my ears (again).

Is anyone else having the same level of aggression from any of their hives – and if so, what’s to blame? Is it nature, nurture – or just they don’t like the look of me? I mean these bees are not just a bit annoyed by my visits – within seconds of lifting the lid I have 15 stings protuding from my gloves!

And I thought these bee suits were meant to protect us but even with my DIY layer of insulation underneath (thick shirt / jeans and my trusted marigolds), they are still finding routes to attack (seemingly especially fond of my ears and ankles).

Even when I make my retreat, they don’t accept their victory graciously, no, they follow me 100 metres with one even escourting me to my front door, and attacking again when I re-emerge five minutes later. No wonder I have a persecution complex!

My Physiological Reactions

20 minutes after the above video I was in a mild state of shock. I could see that my arms and legs were covered in hives (skin looks like it is having allergic reaction) and I noticed that my ears felt like they had been injected with wax. Apparently I was shouting. I think the hives (on the skin) and ears were stress related rather than bee venom related as they had settled down after an hour.

Here’s a photo of my feet the evening of the stings. Stings in the ankles are painful. The feet swell by 30%.

For hours (and days) after the experience I could still hear their buzz in my ears. I flinched at small sounds. I jumped nervously when my wife touched my shoulder.  I have, it must be said, become a nervous beekeeper!

Ankles After Bee Stings
Ankles After Bee Stings

Re-queening Aggressive Hives

Despite all the above, I’m not giving up on beekeeping! So what’s my plan of counter-attack?

Next June I will re-queen with queens that are proven to generate gentle bees. Re-queening now runs the double risk of the bees not accepting the queen and of winter losses.

So how am I going to co-exist with these bees for the next 10 months? My wife and I can generally talk through our differences, and though she can be quite scary at times (“I’m gonna get you in the night” – terrifying), at least I don’t get beaten up or swell up as a result. I know this blog is called “talking with bees” but there is no opportunity for any bee whispering with these aggressive bees. So I think the only interim solution is to put a top of the range bee suit (made from kevlar?) on my Christmas list and looking at my wife’s reaction to events (she doesn’t like to see me getting hurt) – I might get one.

Post script: Sherriff (the top quality bee suit manufacturer) have now supplied me an Apiarist Bee Suit.  So far, so bee tight!

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Guest Beekeeper With No Pants

For the sake of any American readers, what I mean by pants is underpants – but this should become apparent as the story unfolds.

On a Sunday morning in July, this Summer, I went for a run, had a shower and then put on my thickest pair of pants as I was to inspect the bees later in the day.  Despite it being another hot day there was still something comforting about my thick pants.

I considered sending my mate Anthony (who was to join me later for a bee inspection) a jokey text about wearing armour plated pants, but I thought this was just going overboard as I had texted him earlier telling him to bring some cotton wool for his ears and nostrils.  Okay, these thoughts amuse me during my moments alone.

I showed Anthony and his son some empty supers and explained how a hive worked and then stepped into my full bee suit and wellies, secure in the knowledge that I had three layers of protection in the most sensitive of places should the bees attack me.  I gave my mate the ‘guest half suit’ and it did cross my mind that his trendy jeans looked a bit on the thin side.

Here we are, all excited:

Thriller Bees
Thriller Bees

I assured Anthony my bees were friendly seconds before he became my first guest beekeeper to get stung.  He made a lot of noise about it – these actor types like the attention.  I kept calling him to come back and to be fair he did come back for 30 seconds to get a look at the bee eggs and larvae.  We then headed home for some antihistamine ointment.

I popped up stairs to change out of my suit and jeans and get the ointment.  Anthony was keen to show me his bee sting and came up too.  It then also became evident he didn’t have any pants on (“he’d forgot to take them to his brother’s where he was staying the night”).

Let’s assume he wears pants 364 days per year out of 365 days and that he just got very unlucky to find himself dropping his trousers, showing me his sting and applying cream. Or perhaps the exhibitionist in him got lucky?

So the moral of this story is, if you are going to inspect some bees with a friend, best to wear pants.  Not just for that triple layer of protection, but so that in the event you do get stung on the upper thigh and want someone to look at it, it’s a bit less embarrassing for all concerned.

You can read more about this inspection in my hive notes from 21 July 2013.

Bee Update

All looks good. None flying as it’s too cold. They buzz when I tap the hive. No dead bees on the floor (amazing).

If you have been missing my posts, you might want to have a read of My Favourites.

Bee stings – numbers 2 to 15

Even walking through long grass brings me out in a skin rash … so perhaps I should have known better.

I had become blasé.  When we next went to check on Darren’s hives, I tucked my jeans into my socks and put the top half of the bee jacket on.

I already knew from experience that my jeans were not bee proof and I was rather nervous as Darren’s bees tried penetrating my button fly, only half of which were done up.  I have noticed bees make a high pitch whine when they are stuck or in the process of stinging you.  I hoped the whining sound coming from my fly was just a stuck bee.

And then it happened.  I got stung where there was only a thin layer of sock.  No not there, the sock on my foot.

The other bees identified my weak spot and in text book fashion my ankle was attacked by several bees, then my other ankle, then the top of my upper thighs!!

I made my excuses to Darren and headed to the other end of his garden.

I counted about 7 stings in one ankle, 4 in the other and 3 in my thigh.  I pulled about 30 bee stings out of my clothes.  What had Darren just said, it takes 200 bee stings to kill you … or was it 20?

A bee stingbee sting My swollen foot the next daybee sting reaction

I woke up the next morning at 6am with my ankles itching like crazy, my ankle swollen so that it looked like an elephants, bruising and an over welcoming feeling of tiredness.  Later that day, I felt slightly feverish and it was all I could do to hive a swarm of bees that a new bee friend had caught the previous day.  Honeymoon arrangements will have to wait!

My pregnant wife, who has a natural tendency to negate my feelings at the best of times, told me to man-up.  She will be horrified by the following analogy: Like a hippy woman approaching labour and not wanting to use any drugs or an epidural, I initially resisted anti-histamine pills or cream.  But 24 hours later I was smoothing in cream like it was suntan lotion.

Three days later, I was still exhausted, swollen, itchy and bruised.

I have been reading Beekeeping by Ron Brown over recent weeks.  He has a whole section on the make-up of bee venom (pages 131-134) which I have learnt is made up of: several toxic substances, several agents that help the venom spread around the body, protein irritants, steroids and an alarm pheromone.  Crikey!

Ron explains there are two types of people, those who produce more immunoglobulin G (IgG) and those who produce more immunoglobulin E (IgE).  Asthma and hayfever sufferers tend to produce more IgE (that’s me!) and this group of people suffer progressively worse from stings.  Those people who produce more IgG build up their resistance to stings.

He says that no beekeeper needs to give up because of an allergy because it is possible to have immunotherapy which results in becoming someone who produces more IgG.  I will have to look into this!

I also need to reduce the amount of stings I get in the first place so the plan is to: buy a full bee suit and wear wellington boots.  Get kitted-up and be prepared:

Buy beekeeper suits from £37Beekeeper suit

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The first sting is the deepest

I have passed a key milestone in joining the beekeeping club.  I received my first couple of stings for interfering too much with the bees.  They stung through my jeans, so I didn’t get the full impact, but enough to back-off.

The good news is that I did not go into an anaphylactic shock.  I had thought about provoking a bee sting before investing in beehives … but I wasn’t brave enough.

Hopefully, these initial bee stings will build some resistance.  But I think I have read somewhere, that the opposite can happen and you can become allergic over time.  The future is full of uncertainties.

Decision: buy an EpiPen, not for me, but in case someone else needs it.

You need to buy an actual EpiPen from a chemists, but here are some useful products on Amazon:

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