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  • How do I sell my bees after anaphylaxis?

  • General Q&A, Bee chat and only Bee chat please
General Q&A, Bee chat and only Bee chat please
 #8041  by carlam
 28 Jun 2020, 21:20
AndrewLD wrote:
27 Jun 2020, 19:13
Sorry to learn of your experience. A systemic reaction to a sting can happen at any time to a beekeeper, even those who have been keeping bees for years and thought they had built up a resistance.

I had to do some research for a session on anaphylaxis for our beginners course. The good news is that very few beekeepers died from it as a result of a bee-sting in the 10 year period I researched. The bad news is that in almost all of the cases where they did die of it, they had suffered reactions like your's previously and had been prescribed adrenaline pens. Sadly and for a variety of reasons they still died - because they didn't understand how they should be used or that they had possibly seconds in which to make them work, or their partners didn't know and so watched their loved ones die in front of them.

I am not a doctor but if you come back to beekeeping you now know that you are predisposed to a systemic reaction. That fact alone should make you consider very carefully whether to ever return to beekeeping. It' s your decision and your's alone as to what is worth the risk and what is at stake.

If you do decide, like those other beekeepers, to carry on, then please permit me to suggest the following which came out of the cases I studied:

Understand that they give you two pens for a reason, a surprisingly high number of those who use the pens use two injections, the ambulance may administer a third.

They have to be on you and used as soon as you display the symptoms, having them in the car or in the house has proved fatal. Accessible whilst wearing your bee-suit?

Those around you have to know how to use it, better than watching your husband die because you have pulled out the epi-pen too quickly and watched the contents injected into thin air....(actual case)

The second dose has to follow quickly as soon as it is clear the first has not worked on its own, no returning to your seat on the aircraft to get the second pen and be too late.

I get stung and barely notice but I know that one day I could have a systemic reaction, which could take some hours to develop or just seconds. That would be when I give up beekeeping for good.

I can imagine you would like to recover some of your investment but do you not have an increased risk by keeping the bees in close proximity? I suggest you concentrate on removing that risk and getting your bees to a good home.

Let's hope your de-sensitization course works. A key question perhaps for the doctors is whether that guarantees no risk in future or merely reduces a risk that is always going to be inherent in you. It's a cruel trick the body is playing on you. Can happen to anyone but sorry it has happened to you.
Thanks Andrew, that's useful information. Luckily I've been a physician for many years and so I do understand the seriousness of the situation, the treatment and risks.
 #8042  by carlam
 28 Jun 2020, 21:29
Patrick wrote:
28 Jun 2020, 14:24
AndrewLD wrote:
I get stung and barely notice but I know that one day I could have a reaction. That is when I give up.
I get stung and I certainly notice! But to also be serious a moment, I completely agree with your time to hang up the smoker sentiment. I wouldn’t give it a second thought.

Undertake desensitisation by all means to reduce the risk attached to an accidental sting but we have to keep it in proportion as well. Beekeeping is a great hobby but it’s certainly not worth a known enhanced risk of dying for. I read about the risk that we all have of possibly “flipping” after one sting too many and have always borne that in mind since. I have met several folk who have had awful reactions and who have proudly told me of their determination to carry on. It’s their business, but really?

On a lighter note on my last outdoor first aid course the instructor told a story of a nurse trained to practice using an epipen by firmly thrusting it in ones own thigh to properly gauge the required pressure. When the day arrived of a real patient going into anaphylactic shock, the nurse sprang into action, prepared the epipen for use and....stabbed herself in the thigh.

Which just goes to show you can over-rehearse.
[/quote]

I'm trying to keep a lighter overview of the situation so i appreciated your story. Luckily the success of immunotherapy is very high and whilst there is a risk of future reactions, these are rarely fatal, being milder than pre-therapy. In the meantime the bees have to go. Murphy's law of course dictates that the colonies I have are as strong as they ever have been and are producing vast amounts of honey. C'est la vie!
 #8043  by Chrisbarlow
 28 Jun 2020, 22:57
Facebook - you can post bees for sale but it's against FB rules. People do it ALOT

eBay, you can post bees for sale on eBay although it's also against ebay rules, but again people do it

http://www.honeybeesforsale.co.uk/
Legit place to place bees for sale. Patrick is great to deal with and it works

Local association newsletter or district newsletter

Word of mouth with other Beekeepers if you know many

On this forum or the other one in the appropriate for sale section

Free ads / Gumtree / local paper etc...
 #8049  by AndrewLD
 29 Jun 2020, 08:26
carlam wrote:
28 Jun 2020, 21:29
I'm trying to keep a lighter overview of the situation so i appreciated your story. Luckily the success of immunotherapy is very high and whilst there is a risk of future reactions, these are rarely fatal, being milder than pre-therapy. In the meantime the bees have to go. Murphy's law of course dictates that the colonies I have are as strong as they ever have been and are producing vast amounts of honey. C'est la vie!
That is interesting to know and let's remember that this is a forum with this thread having over 190 views, so hopefully others will have benefited. It amazed me that the beekeepers who died (less than ten) hadn't been better briefed or perhaps just hadn't understood the instructions, or the risk to themselves......

The anomaly is keeping the bees whilst still sensitized. Why not contact your local association and offer them to be passed on to a beginner. I am taking a surplus colony over to our association apiary this week (the 3rd this year). The apiary manager will transfer the bees to an association hive, I get mine back plus new frames and foundation) and after checking the colony for temper, queenright, and disease (not required on this one - bee inspector has just checked it) the association passes it on to a beginner, repeating the hive transfer. I keep my colonies to a manageable level and a beginner gets a colony to start beekeeping.

You then have empty hives to sell - maybe easier than selling bees and the risk is removed.
 #8058  by AdamD
 29 Jun 2020, 12:17
http://www.honeybeesforsale.co.uk/
Legit place to place bees for sale. Patrick is great to deal with and it works.


I have dealt with Patrick too. Worth a go.
 #8061  by carlam
 29 Jun 2020, 17:57
Chrisbarlow wrote:
28 Jun 2020, 22:57
Facebook - you can post bees for sale but it's against FB rules. People do it ALOT

eBay, you can post bees for sale on eBay although it's also against ebay rules, but again people do it

http://www.honeybeesforsale.co.uk/
Legit place to place bees for sale. Patrick is great to deal with and it works

Local association newsletter or district newsletter

Word of mouth with other Beekeepers if you know many

On this forum or the other one in the appropriate for sale section

Free ads / Gumtree / local paper etc...
Thanks for the suggestions Chrisbarlow, I'll have a look at honeybeesforsale.co.uk. If anyone's interested and wants to take two full brood boxes and two nucs off my hands, either together, or in isolation then I'll certainly consider offers. the hives are prolific at present.