Dave wrote
> We must start a club...Membership qualification... Being stung by a queen.
I will also be applying for membership. I estimate that I am up to about 6
times being stung by a queen. It usually happens when I am getting queen
bees out of a bank for caging. We escort cages with worker bees from the
hive in which the queens are banked. We have the queens banked in cages
which hold 6 queens, 3 on either side.
I take the cork out and put the banking cage in a small cage with a flap
door. The queen comes out and I catch her, put her into the pre escorted
cage and then spray all with a fine mist of water. The 6 times I have been
stung by the queen is when I catch her to put her in the pre escorted cage.
I put it down to the fact that I probably have pheromone from the other
queens on my fingers and the queen thinks she is stinging another queen.
These are the only occasions I have been stung by a queen. It does not hurt
like a normal bee sting. It is like pricking your finger with a needle.
The pain goes away almost immediately and I have had no swelling.
Trevor Weatherhead
AUSTRALIA