Although there are lots of different chemicals in bee venom (I'm told
about 80 have been identified) the most startling one is the ultra high
pain one which is active for about a minute after the sting takes place.
This short duration ingredient is obviously a "get the intruder away
from the colony" device. I've timed it many times and after about a
minute it's effect dies away very suddenly to leave the dull "bearable"
pain which continues for some time. During that minute it is strong
enough to prevent your mind from focussing on any other subject. Now it
takes about a minute to pick up a dock leaf or any other "effective"
vegetation and rub it on the stung area and lo and behold see how
effective that leaf was - when I rubbed it on the sting the bad pain
dulled down.

Alan Riach
Glad to be a Scottish Protestant and enjoy the pain!