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I've been keeping this blog for all of my beekeeping years and I am beginning my 19th year of beekeeping in April 2024. Now there are more than 1300 posts on this blog. Please use the search bar below to search the blog for other posts on a subject in which you are interested. You can also click on the "label" at the end of a post and all posts with that label will show up. At the very bottom of this page is a list of all the labels I've used.

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I began this blog to chronicle my beekeeping experiences. I have read lots of beekeeping books, but nothing takes the place of either hands-on experience with an experienced beekeeper or good pictures of the process. I want people to have a clearer picture of what to expect in their beekeeping so I post pictures and write about my beekeeping saga here.Master Beekeeper Enjoy with me as I learn and grow as a beekeeper.

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Monday, March 21, 2011

Bee Sting: Myth or Med

I've always heard that bee stings help with arthritis and other aches and pains; that eating local honey prevents allergies; that eating propolis is preventive medicine.  I rarely get stung and these days when I do get stung, a couple of hours later, I can't even tell you where I was stung.

As you may remember from my earlier post, I had 120,000 bees in my kitchen in packages overnight on Friday night.  Whenever you take bees from a beeyard, inevitably some bees come along for the ride who aren't a part of the package or nuc.  These 12 packages were no exception.  A few homeless bees clung to the outside of the packages housed in my kitchen.

 When I reloaded the packages into the car the next day, all the clinging bees did not choose to go into the car with their sisters.  I noticed on Saturday night that there were some errant bees clinging to my kitchen window blinds.

On Sunday when I arrived home from dinner with my daughters, I saw that my dogs had dislodged the rubber pet door from its screws.  I knelt down to take the door off of its base with a screwdriver.  I had on a sleeveless vest and a long sleeved shirt over it.

Suddenly I felt a piercing pain in the tender flesh of my left underarm.  It burned and felt sharp and uncomfortable.  I looked down on the floor and saw my tormentor, a bee from the clingers on the packages.  I guess she was in the vicinity of the pet door and flew up into my exposed underarm.  It was the most painful sting I can remember.

In the January snow a couple of months ago, I took the dogs for a walk and fell hard on the ice.  Catching myself, I injured my left biceps muscle and have had a hard time getting comfortable to sleep every night since then.  I lie down and feel a tearing pain in my upper arm.  I move around, move around, move around until I find a place where my arm hurts the least before being able to sleep.

Last night for the first time since I fell, I went to sleep with absolutely no pain in my upper left arm.

I'm a believer.  Thank you to the bee who stung me in such a vulnerable, painful place.

3 comments:

  1. That is great to hear. I've not been stung YET (knock on wood), but I know it is coming and I liked to believe that it will help my arthritis, so hopefully when it comes I get stung in the hand.

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  2. Every time I wash my hair with Fructis shampoo and approach my hive, I am followed by a couple of bees all the way back to the house and almost into the screened porch. They are seemingly sniffing my hair and trying to burrow into it. They even buzz around outside the closed screen door for few minutes while I stand inside. Last night it happened twice and I inadvertently somehow touched one who popped me on the neck right at the hairline. I am thinking of trying to use Fructis shampoo as a swarm lure!

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  3. I'm not convinced that apitherapy works because I have not had a need to try it. However, I was fascinated by this interview with Amber Rose. You should listen to this if you have a chance.

    http://somdbeekeeper.com/2010/06/12/podcast-episode-11-amber-rose-bee-acupuncturist-on-products-of-the-hive/

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