bee allergys, is it too risky?

Discussion in 'General chat' started by colours, May 30, 2008.

  1. colours

    colours Junior Member

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    Hi everyone,

    I would so love to try keeping bees for honey, but I'm allergic to the stings. The last one sent me to hospital, although it was over 24 years ago. I enquired at my local tafe whether it is ok to keep bees if one is allergic. The teacher said definately not as you will always get a sting here or there. So I decided against it all.

    But I've been thinking. If they can put men on the moon (no conspiratory theorists please) SURELY they can design a bee suit that is impermeable to bees.

    I use a lot of honey in my cooking and would love to use my own. Has anyone with a bee allergy got experience in handling bees?

    I've read so much about native bees, but figure if I had them it would only be for environmental reasons, I probably wouldn't farm their honey.
     
  2. Michaelangelica

    Michaelangelica Junior Member

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    Re: bee allergys, is it too risky?

    Some strains of bees are very gentle and not prone to sting
    It depends a bit on the queen
    Have you thought about having an Aust. native beehive? They have no sting and not enough people are trying to encourage their survival
    You need to talk to your doc about this but there is plenty of good protective gear and you can always take an adrenaline injection with you?:)
     
  3. gardenlen

    gardenlen Group for banned users

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    Re: bee allergys, is it too risky?

    g'day colours,

    might be you should have one of those pecil medications in yur 1st aide kit like the one they use for anathoractic shock from allergies that people have?

    aparists (bee keeper's that is) mostly all suit up some are hardier than others, but yes you can get clothing to protect yourself at hive inspection honey collection time, i am allergic also and around hives the bees seem to target me, so anytime you are around the hives say clearing grass growth you might have to suit up as honey bees by and large are fairly aggressive. also there are pests and bugs that will want to infest hives or eat you worker bees, can toads do that very well, there is some involvement in keeping and maintaining hives so it also may pay you to check all that out as well.

    other things to consider you will need to access certain equipment to collect honey, also hives will swarm (when they allow another queen to develop), and you then have the responsibility of collecting the swarmed bees and boxing them, noit good to simply let them go into the habitat where they compete with native bees and even birds for hive space.

    native bees are a good safe alternative if you only want pollinators they are not big producers of honey for the main, and the honey may be not that easy to harvest as honey bee honey is? i have a couple links on our site for native bees you could always ask them.

    in the end you may start with on hive and end up with many.

    len
     
  4. missf

    missf Junior Member

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  5. MikeB

    MikeB Junior Member

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    Re: bee allergys, is it too risky?

    Best bet would be to get Australian native bees as a last resort.
     
  6. Amaly

    Amaly New Member

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    Re: bee allergys, is it too risky?

    Look up NAET on the net and get a pracititioner to fix your bee allergy I had heaps of allergies fixed this way But have a good suit too in case it wears off
     
  7. ho-hum

    ho-hum New Member

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    Re: bee allergys, is it too risky?

    Hello.

    Colours,

    Please, if you have a medical issue then do not play with bees.

    Trigona spp. are not 'bees' in the euro-amero sense of the word. Our little 'sweat bees' perform a similar function without any of the 'nasty' of european bees.
    Bee allergies can be fixed, sadly death cannot be. I think more aussies are killed every year by beestings than by lightning strike and shark attack. If you genuinely suffered a reaction to bee sting then get that fixed. If you wanna supply your family with honey then certainly that can be done with native bees. They really are two different issues and if you have had an episode then you should be aware.

    cheers
    ho-hum
     
  8. MikeB

    MikeB Junior Member

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    Re: bee allergys, is it too risky?

    Go and have an allergy test before you do anything is probably the best bet.
     

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