Bee Sting Relief

Our honeybees have had a crazy and unfortunately an eventful spring.  They have already swarmed once and have are threatening to do it again.  When I went outside today I noticed that they were acting like they were going to swarm again, so I put out an extra hive box with some Lemongrass Essential Oil in it as an attractant. That way we might be able to catch our own bees if they do decide to swarm.

My husband does most of the beekeeping in our house because we thought I might be allergic to bees.  About 10 years ago I was stung on the arm while driving on a road trip with the window down.  My entire arm swelled up about twice it's normal size.  I was nauseous and ill for the entire rest of the day.  When I mentioned it to my doctor once, his eyes got big and then he wrote me a prescription for an epi-pen, which I carried around for years.

About 4 years ago I had an allergy test done and the test came back negative for bee venom.  Because bee allergies can be so serious, I wasn't exactly jumping on the bandwagon when we decided to keep bees.  I have enjoyed it and almost always observe when my husband does inspections, but I keep my distance.

Because of their erratic behavior the last few weeks, my husband decided to do a very thorough inspection.  I pulled out my lawn chair and observed about 12 feet away as he pulled each frame out and inspected it.  Towards the end I went inside to get dinner started.  When my husband finished, I came out of the house to make sure he was bee-free before we took off his protective gear.  There was a bee hiding in a fold of his clothing, so I whisked it away.  Next thing I knew there was a bee flying around my head and then I felt a sharp sting on the back of my neck.  The bee was stuck in my hair.  While my husband was getting the bee out of my hair, I could feel the intensity gradually increasing.  My husband got the stinger out and then I went straight inside and grabbed my Purify essential oil blend.  I put a drop directly on my bee sting.  I immediately felt some relief.  I kept applying one drop about every 5 minutes.  The welt never got any bigger and there has been no swelling.  15 minutes after the sting there was no more pain.  I am so thankful that I had the essential oils on hand.  I have never had such a pleasant bee-sting experience.

Other essential oils that are good for bee stings are Roman Chamomile and Basil.

Honey Harvest 2010

Late August 2010

Rick is removing the capped frames from the beehive for harvesting.  He brushed be bees from the frames, and then we placed them in a covered cooler until it was full and then we brought it inside.

Rayna is supervising to make sure Rick is doing everything right.

 This video shows how we scraped the honeycomb from the frames.  Really high-tech, I know.  we used a putty knife to scrape the honey comb into a bucket.  Then we crushed the honeycomb, releasing the honey from the cells. 

We strained the honey through a filter and then put the honey in jars.

 This is what we got from the first harvest.  The next day were were able to get 2 more pints from what was left in the filter.  We had another harvest probably a month later and got about the same amount again.  Not bad for our first year.  Thank-you alfalfa farmer in our back yard!