Bees All Up in Your Face!

[aggienaut]

   On Tuesday night I got between 100 and 150 bee stings. Thats the range most hospitalized bee attacks are and about 8% to 11% of a lethal dose for me, so that was fun.

   You see Monday Professor Thoenes and I went back up North to work on the bees. Monday night we drove as far as Davis, ate at Woodstocks there and hung out at G St Pub. That was fun. Met some people in Davis who actually didn't want to kill me. (= And I introduce Allan Rae to Thoenes and Al's like "I think I met you through [UC Davis Entomologist] Eric Mussen" small world.

   Tuesday we get up to Redding and load half our hives (54) onto a trailer as its snowing. At the truck stop as we were leaving Redding they were changing the road condition sign from "chains required north of Redding" to "road closed due to snow north of Redding".
   We then drove six hours or so south to the bee broker's staging area near Coalinga. When we got to the last turnoff for the staging area Steve (Thoenes) says "I think this is the road" and I say "are you sure, that just looks like a field to me!" It was a three miles road of four inches of mud. We thought that was bad, but then we got to the actual bee yard where the mud was 6 to 8 inches deep and our truck got stuck twice (and a forklift got temporarily stuck trying to pull us out). At one point I picked up a pallet and turned to carry it somewhere else and nearly fell right over because my feet had become solidly stuck in mud and I couldn't get them out without putting the pallet down.
   Anyway, to stay on schedule we'd have to unload the bees immediately and drive a few hours back north that night, even though it was already pitch black. Since the bees had been very docile earlier in the day at it was way too cold out for bees to be active we didn't put stop to put on bee suits or anything before pulling off the tarp. Unfortunately, however, the bees had of course been shaken up something fierce on the muddy road and as soon as we pulled off the tarp we all got lit up. Two farmhands immediately disappeared (and one never came back) and the rest of us retreated to put suits on. At that point though we were already covered from head to foot in bees so we were putting bee suits on over bees.
   The bee yard foreman (Bill) and his brother (Chris) the bee broker (brother-in-laws of eachother) both had bushy mountain-man beards, wore overalls and flannel, and talked like farmers (You know, kiinda sloow). Bill was particularly grizzly, and kind-of drunk when we got there (due to a miscommunication apparently he hadn't been expecting us). He never put on a bee suit, but you could tell when he got stung by his exclamation of "motherf!@#$er!" (which came every few seconds). He also kept hollerin "are you sissies! go faster!" to no one specifically and I found it quite amusing.
   And this if of course when I got 100-150 stings. I had bees crawling over every part of my body. It was quite the adventure. Most of my stings were on my wrists and neck however.

   We drove as far back north as Stockton that night. Wednesday morning I could barely turn my neck or swallow. We stopped at the Fat Cat Cafe in Woodland as we passed through and I had some soup. They still remembered me there like I'd just been there yesterday so that was fun. Back in Redding we loaded the remaining 54 hives and hauled them back south. Arriving at the bee yard at 10pm we just unhitched the trailer and went to find a motel.

   Thursday we offloaded the new load of hives and then spent the whole day (eight hours) opening up the hives to check on them and then putting them on pallets. In addition to bees there were sevel black widows the size of grapes in there, I had know idea they got that big!!

   After finishing that we were finally able to drive home. The end.

   So yeah. 100-150 bee stings, quite painful. Prof Thoenes said I seemed to be handling it better than most people, probably because I've had a lot of experience with small numbers of bee stings. I was feeling mostly better within 24 hours, but I still look like I have chicken pox on my wrists and neck.

Comments

[colt-4-5.livejournal.com]

Thats a lot of stings. When I was a kid I was playing in an abandoned car with a friend of mine, and we uncoverd a nest of something aweful. They were black with white bands on them. Boy did they pack a punch. I think I got between 10 and 20 stings, and I have a scar where the worst one was.

[metalphoenix.livejournal.com]

Holy crap, ow.

I've gotten one bee sting and one wasp sting in my life, at separate times, and even that was like OMGPAINFUL. I can't imagine that many at once :( :(

Also, ah black widows! I'm so glad I do not have your job/hobby.

[ashael.livejournal.com]

PLS DONT DIE KTHNX
I hope you don't develop allergy.

[xaositecte.livejournal.com]

Over a hundred bee stings, Wow.

Just one hurts like a sumbitch, I can't imagine how much that must have sucked.

I, for one, take comfort in the fact that they're all dead now, and you're still alive.