Hi All
 
Thanks for the continuing wealth of info coming in on Bee Line.
 
Since I started beekeeping earlier this year I have got about 20 stings.
Normally, I do not suffer much from pain, just an itchiness which fades out
after about 48 hours. I do not use any medication.
 
The other evening, I transferred a colony of bees from a nuke to a hive.
There were some bees left in the nuke when I had finished, and try as I
might I could neither shake or smoke them out.
 
I was worried that the queen might be among them, so I set a wooden board at
an angle between the ground and the hive entrance and placed the nuke with
the remaining bees at the bottom of the board.
 
Then I adjourned to the local pub and downed a few pints of Guinness.
 
When I returned, I suddenly remembered the nuke. Fearing that it might rain
I decided to pick up the nuke and put it in a shed, believing (wrongly) that
all of the remaining bees would be gone. However I got, what to me was an
extremely painful sting on my middle finger, my hand swelled up noticeably
and it is still a bit swollen 2 days afterwards. This is the first time I
have had such a bad reaction, and I am wondering did the bee venom and the
alcohol react with one another.
 
Can anybody comment on the above.
 
Thanks for any help
 
Sincerely
 
Tom Barrett
49 South Park
Foxrock
Dublin 18
Ireland
 
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