# Beekeeping while pregnant...



## madness (Dec 6, 2006)

Well, it's a little too late for this, but figured I would ask. My husband is deathly afraid of the bees. That's fine, I had them before we met! But last year I had a terrible time with them. One of my hives became quite aggressive and I was stung through my clothing (and leather gloves!) at least 2 dozen times every time I worked the hive. I'm a newbie, so I'm sure there's things I can learn from that experience, but it wasn't like my first season. It seemed like before when I got stung, I knew how I had screwed up. Last fall, if I looked at the bees funny, it was a massive attack. I planned on requeening but couldn't get one that late in the year, so I was going to do it first thing this spring.

And my reaction to the stings got a bit odd. Every once in a while, I would have one or two that would swell up bad. But I guess having so many stings, I would get very swollen and feel horrible for 3 or 4 days after wards. I frequently had swellings on my arms that prevented me from bending my elbow completely. No fun.

So when I got pregnant, my husband said 'no more bee inspections!" I'm due on May 1st, so I figured I could just hold off on the spring stuff until then. Well, that was a mistake. The aggressive hive swarmed this weekend - got a call from the neighbor (who's mother-in-law is a beekeeper and was in town and offered to catch the swarm for me!) but couldn't get there in time. Ugh. So looks like spring came earlier than I wanted it to.

So, do you think it's a bit of an over reaction to not open the hive while pregnant and starting to have escalated reactions to stings? I did go out and get an epi pen after my last bad attack. Unfortunately, at this point, I don't know that I could lift a box off the hive with my back the way it is. So it might be a completely moot point. I wonder if someone from the local bee club could be enticed to come over and take a look-see...


----------



## indypartridge (Oct 26, 2004)

I'd put out a call for some help. Are one of these clubs nearby? Maybe you could make arrangements for a club member to come out and re-queen your hive. Mean bees are no fun.

http://www.texasbeekeepers.org/clubs/


----------



## madness (Dec 6, 2006)

There's a club that I'm actually a member of (hmm, come to think of it, I don't think I paid my dues this year!). I left a message for some of the officers and I'll see if I get a response about somebody being able to help. I'd be more than willing to pay somebody, just need to see if anyone is available!


----------



## Maverick_mg (Mar 11, 2010)

Its has to be your choice and if you were worried then you made the right choice no matter what the outcome was. I still did my hive inspections when I was pregnant but Im not sure what I would have done if the hive had been aggressive since I don't usually put on the veil or gloves until harvest. As for your reaction to the stings, I read if you eat a TBLS of honey from your hive every day, over time you will have less of a reaction to the venom in a sting. I do this, (my first year I had to use my neighbors honey because my hive was too young to harvest) and found not only does it help but I have almost no seasonal allergies!


----------

