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