I used always, after my first stings in spring, to take 2 days swelling up and 2 days going down again. Nowadays I make sure that I get a few stings during the winter and this doesn't happen any more.

A week ago, while going up and down ladders all day to a scaffolding, removing a couple of colonies from a roof  of a 16th century house that was being renovated, a toe that had been troubling me (diagnosed this evening after blood tests as gout) flared up painfully.  I applied the sharp end of a bee and left it there for a full 2 minutes. It was painful at the time but the pain, swelling and inflamation of the toe rapidly reduced to considerably less than before the sting.

Chris

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