I finally got caught up on my mowing after receiving the latest replacement part for my mower. I hope that is it for awhile in mower repairs. One little snafu though. I was marking a queen that I had raised a couple days ago and after catching her I realized I could not get the cap off my paint pen while holding her. I took my free hand and unzipped my veil sliding it over my head with one hand. I put the marker pen cap between my teeth and pulled it out. This movement near my face must have got the attention of a guard bee that flew straight out and stung me just under my left eyebrow and above my eye lid. I thought I got the stinger out, but could not tell for sure. I continued marking and releasing the queen then finished in the beeyard About 45 minutes later I discovered I had NOT gotten the stinger and it swelled pretty good.
Today I was mowing in front of the ESSO Bee hive (explanation of the ESSO Bees on another blog) and one stung me in the corner fold of my right eye. Same thing happened in that I thought I got the stinger but did not. I found out about an hour later the stinger was still in and it is also swelling pretty good. I usually do not swell at all and within a few minutes can not tell I have even been stung. Obviously the eye is a place that operates under different rules.
I found another queen that I had raised in one of my hives today. She is possibly the biggest queen I have ever seen and laying the most beautiful brood pattern too. I have some photos of before I marked her and after. Since I only have two hands at the present, I could not photograph the actual marking. It is easy to do and though she could sting if she wanted to, she does not even try to do so. You may notice the thumb that is healing up nicely 6 months after smashing it with a hammer. I hit it with a hammer on the edge yesterday. Not very hard, but hard enough to make me think of either passing out or saying something very not so nice! LOL Enjoy
BTW, I added a photo the the previous blog on the colony I removed from the tree. You can see the rubber bands are mostly in place, but they have attached all the comb nicely.
Cal
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