Bee stings are, I now know, very painful - and I haven't even been stung, yet.
It turns out that the bees can *almost* sting through the bee suit. During the spectacularly incompetent insertion of the varroa treatment (see two entries below), the bees became very, very upset.
During the excitement I felt some sharp pricks - a bit like being nipped by a horsefly - on my forearms. I was wearing a tee shirt under the bee suit, and on all other occasions I have been wearing a long-sleeved suit.
This was four days ago, and I still have great hard red blotches on my arms.
With one layer of cotton between me and a bee, it turns out that their barb is *just* long enough to reach my skin, and *not quite* long enough to inject the venom for a full sting.
Hmmmm. Not quite sure if this counts as "unstung so far" or "lucky escape."
Toby Chapman-Dawe
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