I have been watching this list for a time now - hoping to get into
     beekeeping next spring.  My fascination with bees came about 3 years
     ago when I was living in a second floor apartment of a two story home.
     Some bees had decided to nest in the walls and between the ceiling and
     roof in my bedroom.  I would hear them and swore they were getting
     louder and louder.  I asked the owner of the building to do something
     about them, and he ignored me, so I tried to ignore them.  Finally one
     day I came home, went into the bedroom and was introduced face to face
     with a couple of hundred bees - they had torn out a patch in my
     ceiling and seeing the light from the nearby window had come on in (I
     assume it was the light since the entire window was covered).  After
     my initial shock I calmed myself down and actually just sat there
     watching them.  Don't know if it was an act of a higher being, but
     didn't even get stung.  Story comes to a sad ending though - a
     exterminator was brought in and he took care of him.  I moved out
     shortly after that, but reading recent threads has made me believe
     that it is probably likely that a whole new crew has probably moved in
     and made themselves at home.
 
     O.K.  I'll stop wasting my breath now.  The point of this message was
     to ask a question.
 
     In the past week I have seen several references to a survey done that
     stated that the average beekeeper gets stung 500 times a year.  Anyone
     want to verify this or laugh at it?  I forget what the study was, but
     I do remember the little fact popping up on the headline news.  I saw
     it somewhere else as well but can't remember where right now.  Not
     that this is going to discourage me from getting into beekeeping (I'll
     just look for a kinder and gentler colony :) ).
 
     Kevin
 
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