John: Just got back from 3 week trip and noted your E-mail about allergies to
stings.
 
I am in my 65 th year of beekeeping, went into antiphalactic shock 34 years
ago when I got about 70 stings in a few minutes.  Two honeybee sting
SPECIALISTS at Johns Hopkins provided me with the answer: After having bees
then for 31 years, I had become so efficient that I was NOT BEING STUNG ENOUGH
to maintain a sting immunity.  Treatment: Get stung often, even every day.  I
have done this for the past 34 years, and can get 100 stings all at once
without any effect and no change in blood pressure.
 
I really HATE to say this, but it is fact so I must so it.  Most allergists,
irrespective of their medical school fame or their own knowledge primarily
treat "hay Fever", and frankly KNOW LITTLE ABOUT HONEYBEE VENOM.
 
I would suggest you correspond with either Dr. Gulden or Dr. Valentine at
Johns Hopkins Medical Center in Baltimore.  They have spent the last 30-40
years doing little more than investigating honey bee sting problems.
 
Most allergists tell you to "stop beekeeping", because that is the "easy" way
out for them.  If you are a "true" devotee of apis mellifera, you will hunt up
Gulden and Valentine.
 
Good Luck and Happy Holidays
 
                                                                                                George Imirie