[rolftonbees]

Hello. New here, just got my bees in May. Picked up 2 hives that were left behind when someone moved away. I feed them a couple times last winter and in early spring then picked them up in may. Found out just how heavy a deep can be while trudging in mud in the dark with a flashlight pointing at me from the back of a truck blinding me as I could not see out of my veil. Was wearing motorcycling leathers and boy was it hot.

Then they were home and a couple days later I got up the nerve to inspect the frames. What a mess. The foundations had fallen and the brood nest was a convoluted mess of a thing in both boxes. One was worse than the others.

Overall it has been fun. I am enjoying the bees and have only had 2 sting, one on purpose so I would know if I was deadly allergic and the other due to a mistake I made when not wearing protection. The first I got because I opened the box intentionally with no gloves and short sleeves during a thunder and lightning storm just before it started to rain. I did not get stung even then until I scooped up a handful. Finally a sting while others were home to call 911 if I was allergic.
The second was when I had guests wearing my protections and held a frame directly over the smokers output. I would have stung me too. It is funny that I had to work at getting stung, these creatures are forgiving to be sure. I still respect them and realize that dropping a box or frame could get me stung bunches.

So here I am having a mid-life crisis and making plans to add 10 move hives next year. I will order 5 and plan to get 5 splits from what will be 7 hives. My milage may vary. This next winter will have a lot of frames and foundations in it.

 

[SpringGreen]

I'm a newbee too..started with two packages and the bees kinda multiplied...it is fun, isn't it?!

Just so you know, you can develop an allergy at any time (I do happen to be a veterinarian and deal with allergies quite often, and the mechanism is the same for all mammals). Allergies happen after repeated exposures. The vast majority of beekeepers develop something akin to an immunity after repeated stings, but there are the few who suddenly, out of the blue, have a severe, lifethreatening reaction. Keep some liquid Benadryl and H-2 blockers in your work box, and some people keep epi-pens as well, but an epi-pen is an emergency tool to give you time to get somewhere for steroids and other treatments. I lug around liquid Benadryl, Pepcid, an epinephrine inhaler (like what an asthmatic might use) just in case, along with a phone.

Like you, so far I've only been stung twice. Once was, I believe, purely on accident by the bee; I was standing near the hives watching the action and a bee stung the back of my neck, no warning, no buzzing my head, nothing. The second was when I accidentally grabbed a bee and she nailed me through my gloves.

I don't want more than maybe 7 hives, one to look through each day :lol

This has been a great place to hang out...hope you learn lots!

 

[Belewsboy]

Welcome!

 

[AmericasBeekeeper]

Welcome RB!

 

[GaryG74]

Welcome to BeeSource! You're in for a lot of fun as well as an education with your new hobby!

 

[rolftonbees]

SpringGreen,

Thanks for the reminder to keep the benydril with me. I was aware that some can become more allergic later on, but wanted to know my baseline before investing a lot of time and money. If I had had a terrible reaction, I would have moved the bees to another happy owner.

Is Dan's Starlight still in business. We stayed at the "Barney Fife" motel and ate a Dan's for dinner every year for 5 years in the late 90's on our way to a festival up north.