I read on this forum by some very experienced beeks that queen bees don?t sting beeks. This is nonsense, I have been stung many times and it hurts. The video shows a close up of a queen stinging.
The queen bee has a huge venom sac that I clearly see during artificial insemination, must carefully negotiate, and I have personally been the unfortunate receiver of this most unpleasant venom.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=kqaXGnrtigc
There is a difference of stingers of queen bees as the queen stinger is not sleeved with bards, rather a smooth pointed single hollow shaft that penetrates the skin so easily. The worker bee has the same smooth hollow shaft that is sleeved on both sides of the shaft with oscillating bards that dig deeper into the skin as the muscles on the sting apparatus do their work.
So a queen stinger is retractable and capable of many stings whereas a worker. Er uh, you know all to well.
Spring is coming, although there is 12 inches of snow at the present time.🥶
Quote from: van from Arkansas on February 20, 2021, 12:59:49 PM
I read on this forum by some very experienced beeks that queen bees don?t sting beeks. This is nonsense, I have been stung many times and it hurts.
The queen in the video was reluctant to sting, putting extreme pressure on the head and thorax causing her to defend life. Relay we need have some respect for the bees.
If your going to dispatch a queen do it quickly, just my humble opinion.
Quote from: Brian MCquilkin on February 20, 2021, 05:56:30 PM
The queen in the video was reluctant to sting, putting extreme pressure on the head and thorax causing her to defend life. Relay we need have some respect for the bees.
If your going to dispatch a queen do it quickly, just my humble opinion.
Yeah, I kinda agree, that was sort of horrible. Interesting for sure, but also horrible. :sad:
I noticed that this queen had a defective front left leg.
This video shows just how hard it is to get a queen to sting. They had to squeeze it to the point that they pushed the stinger out.
They should have just handled another queen bee like Van has mentioned.
Jim Altmiller
Yes, Jim, I learned the hard way: don?t obtain queen pheromones on the hands then pick up a different queen, POW. I want to emphasize that most queens don?t sting as I handle the insects. However, I wanted to make clear the old wise tale that queens don?t sting is not an accurate saying. Even gently handling rare breeders for II can result in a surprise sting.
Interesting. You can see the queen does have small barbs, but she could pull it out with some struggle. I never have been stung by a queen but I never tried to make them sting me...