Honeybees and Stings Part 2

This is completely ironic since I just wrote about my memories as a child with honeybees recently, yesterday(Sept. 4th), I was stung by a bee! So, I now realize that I forgot how much it really hurts! Ouch!
I called my dad, since he's a beekeeper, to ask him about it since I'm limping around and it's swelling so much. I had told him how the bee's stinger was stuck in my knee where it stung me and he asked if I had pinched it out or scratched it. Well, I had pinched it out and apparently that releases more venom into the area so that's why it has swollen even more. If the stinger gets stuck in you then you are supposed to scratch it out instead. So, there's something to remember - scratch the stinger out! I know I'll be fine and I feel bad that the bee most likely died since it lost its stinger but I want to scream also. Hopefully, in a few days, it will stop swelling and heal. Then I'll forget about the hurt of the sting once again and go back to liking honey.
I was with Hope when I was stung by the honeybee because it happened at the dentist office parking lot. I started to reminisce and this experience took me back in time to 7th grade when I was stung by a yellow jacket about six times at the school bus stop. It had crawled up my pant leg and became trapped and just kept stinging away. It was in the same knee, my right one, and I remember it swelling pretty bad too. I had to actually pinch the yellow jacket in my pant leg until it died and stopped stinging me. I was afraid to let go of it on the bus full of jr. high school students. I didn't want to scream out or draw any attention to myself about the situation or risk the very real possibility of being teased. So, I held the yellow jacket firmly in my pant leg until I got home and let go. I saw that it was huge and then I screamed. My mom was scared and came to help me. I can still feel the cold ice packet that she put on it. I was relieved for a bit. She still remembers that experience also. I've lived through being stung a few times now, I can do it again. Wish me luck!
Btw, Hope did great at getting her filling at the dentist. She was a darling patient and didn't have the laughing gas either by her own insistence, they told me. Hope, you always impress me!

Honeybees and Stings

This is my brother, Mike's recent favorite memory. He sent me these pictures which I really appreciated. They are pictures of him and my dad smoking out a beehive all decked out in their beekeeping gear. These pictures really brought back the memories for me of when I was a little girl and I had helped my dad with the beehives.

I remember wearing the white beekeeping suit that my mom had sewn for me and really hoping that I wouldn't get stung. Even though, I'd been stung before, I just didn't like it. I dreaded that possibility because even when you might expect a bee sting, for some reason, they still take you for surprise somehow. It hurts!

After the honey was harvested from the beehives, we'd come home and the real work would begin. I remember watching my dad as he handled each honeycomb carefully and sheared it just right with a heated knife to produce the honey dripping process. He'd then place them in a big silver barrel that had a handle on it that we would turn and turn and turn until our arms were weak and tired. All of the children took turns doing the turning, but I'm sure my dad still did a lot more of it. It took a lot of turning just to get one bucket of honey. I never could believe how slow the process really was. How much work and dedication it took. I admired my dad's stamina, not only to harvest the honey but to let all of his children help him do it.

My dad would put the honey into jars and honey bears that we would store or give away to people to enjoy.

I still remember when he would make wheat bread and let us put honey on it as it was warm and fresh from the oven. It was soooo good!

I also remember eating bits of the sheared honey comb and it tasted so incredible. We would chew and chew it up like gum in our mouths until it started to taste like wax. Then spit it out into the trash can.

My dad also made lots of candles with the leftover honeycomb. They really smelled good when he burnt them. He was always looking for uses for the honeycomb and he didn't like things to go to waste if he could help it become something practical and useful.

I also remember him teaching us about the bees and how they made honey. I remember my dad getting little boxes of bees in the mail and watching them buzz around in the tiny box. I know how important the queen bee is to the hive. I know that there are worker bees, who do a lot of work, and drones who don't do as much. It fascinated me and I thought about it a lot. I still love the taste of honey and I think I always will.