what was the most disconcerting thing to happen to you while beekeeping?

[barry42001]

there are two things that I find most disconcerting, to hear that shrill buzz and know that it's inside the veil next to your face.
the other thing is to feel something fuzzy and buzzing crawling up the inside of your pant leg.

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[LazyBkpr]

LOL
   Once the bee is inside, Mr. Veil is no longer your friend!
   Forget whose sig line that was, but I remember it.


  Disconcerting, would be...   sweeping a SWARM off the underside of a big branch into a BOX, and seeing the HOLE that was the hive entrance.....    yes...  Disconcerting..  I can only claim 38 ish stings as thats how many stingers got removed later, but I am quite sure the amount of stings was in the neighborhood of.....   3000!!!

   That wasnt as bad as the time I went to take a quick look while wearing SHORTS.......

[Jen]

Summertime, no veil, just a quick peek. Lifted lid, all bees content... except ONE! which shoot towards my head and landed on my nostril. I froze. 'Jen, stay calm, breathe shallow'. Too late! Shebee deftly curled her abdomen deep inside my nostril and nailed me a good one.

[Perry]

Working on pulling a frame with eggs from one of my best hives to graft from, I noticed queen cells had been started. I left the top box on it's end to get a queen clip from the truck to find and catch the queen and make up a nuc with her. When I got back and went to lift the box off I picked it up upside down and promptly dumped 10 frames of bees and brood on the ground! 
I stood there for at least a minute in shock, thinking what have I just done?
I picked up each frame with bees and checked them over and put them in the empty box. I went thru all 10 and could not find the queen. I was feeling mighty sick about it. I still had a few queen cells that I thought might be OK. I took a deep breath and started going through the bottom deep and............there she was!  I removed her and put her in a nuc and left some cells behind to hatch out a new queen. I also snagged a good frame for my buddy Adam to graft from.
I am hoping with the new molding head cutter to make my hand holds, this mistake won't happen again. The straight dado cut handles allow you to pick up boxes upside down as well as right side up.
Live and learn. 

[barry42001]

what you don't have black arrows this side up  painted on them

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[iddee]

Just how many do you want listed. as the yellow jacket that made it all the way up my pants leg while the homeowner and his wife were watching. YES, ALL the way.

The 200 stings per day when I didn't know there were 5 hives in the same wall and was smoking only the one I was removing.

The 150 stings when I scraped off a hive when it was 46 degrees.

The time I was carrying a hive in bathing trunks when the bottom fell off.

Unloading 500 hives from a semi at night, with no veil. Countless stings.

And that's just the beginning.

[brooksbeefarm]

Sorry, i have never made a mistake or messed up when working bees. but i do enjoy reading about other peoples mistakes. It helps me to not do those things. Hey perry, i've went to cleats on all my hives, the bees don't care if there home doesn't have pretty cut out hand holds, remember, old Author is going to come see you some day and lifting 40 lbs of honey with your finger tips will become very painful. :'( Jack

[litefoot]

I've been stung plenty here entering my third year of mellifero-wrangling, but the most disconcerting thing was having to shake out a colony with laying workings on the ground away from their hive. There was no joy in walking away from a pile of homeless blindly-meandering bees.

[riverbee]

great thread barry,
for me, the most disconcerting thing was experiencing anaphylaxis, and being diagnosed with allergies to all stinging insects and going through the injection therapy, but i will get there and get back into the bees.

beyond that, i don't think any of us could probably match iddee's stories, but some funny things to be told by all for the mistakes we have made or the cirumstances we were under!

i can think of helping to 'round up' package bees and hives being spilled all over the freeway after accidents. 

salvaging bee hives after bear attacks with a veil and no smoker or having a smoker and no veil......

moving beehives with a friend of mine in a 4 door buick, in the backseat and the trunk, and the hives came undone. we had to put veils on. hotter than a pistol, and the air condiitoning in the vehicle was out, so speeding on the interstate to get to the destination and get stopped by the state patrol.......

being gassed out of a vehicle moving beehives with beego spilled in it!

dropping frames of bees?  tipping over a deep box?  chasing a flying/running queen a time or two that flew off the frames?

leaving your hive tool in the hive to find it propolized down?

okay how about this, checking your sprayer for some sugar syrup mix to spray frames and bees, and you spray yourself in the face with it......

losing bees when we have done all the right things or done our best.....

[Jen]

Really Good Stories Here. I'll just stick with two hives thank you very much... 

[barry42001]

Thank you Riverbee :-)

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[riverbee]

hey your welcome barry, a great thread!  some good things to be told on ourselves!

[Woody Roberts]

Yeah, it's all fun until you can't see any wrinkles on your hands any more or you get up in the morning and have to let your cap out an inch to get it on your head.

[apisbees]

Worked the bees and all was good but one needed a super added so went back to the shed for a super by the time i got back to placing the super on top the sun
had gone down and because the hives had been calm
never tide the veil. One side of the face normal the other eye swolen shut looked like I was wearing a tumer.


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[apisbees]

there are two things that I find most disconcerting, to hear that shrill buzz and know that it's inside the veil next to your face.
the other thing is to feel something fuzzy and buzzing crawling up the inside of your pant leg.

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To get use to the bees being in the veil and so you don't freak out. On the first hive you open find a couple of drones and place them inside the veil. It will get you use to having the bees in the veil and if a worker makes it inside you will be less likely to freak out as you will think that it is one of your fiendly drones.

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[tecumseh]

Most disconcerting huh...

I can thing of two very short replies...

1) a bee in you veil that then decides to crawl into your ear canal.  that will get get your intention and the worst part is not that it stings you on the inside of your ear canal.

2) a story not to be told in that yes on occasion people die from bee stings.   

[Jen]

Well Apis, that's a good bit of advice.

I don't swell or itch anymore cause I use 1 preventative sting a week. Sometimes more if I have some aching going on. 

[barry42001]

Another disconcerting happenstance is when there's not when one bee inside your veil but three or four, because you now realize that you're veil is not sealed in any way shape or form

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[Bsweet]

Question iddee... you said moving a hive in bathing trunks and the bottom fell off....which bottom? hive or trunks


My most disconncerting thing to date was. Had a hive with an attitude, not mean but almost. Had tipped the upper deep back on edge to look into the lower box and while holding the upper box with one hand have that hand start to cramp between the thumb and first finger, before I could do anything the box I was holding slid off the lower box and hit the ground pretty hard and upset the ladies. Lucky I had a veil on but the tee shirt didn't help much. Jim

[Jen]

""Question iddee... you said moving a hive in bathing trunks and the bottom fell off....which bottom? hive or trunks""

Good Question!