Hi All

> > suddenly you get an allergic reaction and you have to start looking
> > for a new hobby/job.

At a recent committee meeting of our local beekeeping association I proudly
showed off my newly-acquired EpiPen.  Turned out that three of us (there
were I think 10 around the table), all hobby beekeepers but not particularly
paranoid about avoiding stings, were allergic.  All three have been
confirmed by RAST tests, one had been rendered unconscious and has given up
beekeeping, one has been successfully desensitised, and I'm hoping that the
specialist will offer me desensitisation when I see him at the end of the
year.

I'm not saying that frequent stings fail to protect, but do we know how
frequent and intense they have to be?  Maybe in a 'good' year (or over a
long winter?) we can too easily fail to obtain the protection stings bring?
For my part, in the 2002 season I worked my bees weekly from late April to
July, and less frequently outside that period.  Probably the usual
pin-pricks through kitchen gloves or trousers, I don't really remember.  The
first decent stinging episode in 2003 gave me my first ever systemic
reaction.

Gavin - thinking, clean that beekeeping kit, clean it often, and keep it out
of the house!

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