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British Beekeepers Association Official Forum 

  • 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
 #8005  by carlam
 27 Jun 2020, 12:29
Hi All, I was stung - not my first sting by any means - a few weeks ago and had an anaphylactic reaction which meant an interesting night spent in A&E, after being found lying on my bathroom floor by the emergency services who I'd managed to call. I'm ok, but I now have to sell my bees, as it's not safe for me to keep them because they're in my small garden. I'm due to start a bee venom sensitisation course later this year so I will be able to return to beekeeping in a couple of years I hope. I have never had to sell any of my bees before and so I wondered if anyone here has any suggestions as to how I best do this? I haven't had any interest from my beekeeping association, although I'm not sure how they're advertising them and although I found a Facebook group, it won't allow ads selling bees to be posted.
 #8006  by Alfred
 27 Jun 2020, 12:42
www.freeads.co.uk
It's quite a developed platform but be prepared for the time wasters you've managed to escape so far.....

I know someone who wants to start up, so pm me if you wish
 #8013  by carlam
 27 Jun 2020, 13:06
Alfred wrote:www.freeads.co.uk
It's quite a developed platform but be prepared for the time wasters you've managed to escape so far.....

I know someone who wants to start up, so pm me if you wish
I'm not able to pm you Alfred, as I'm a new member. If you pm me then I'll hopefully be able to respond
 #8018  by AdamD
 27 Jun 2020, 16:07
Sorry to learn of you bad reaction. Being found on the floor of your bathroom is getting serious! Hopefully the injections will work and you'll be back to beekeeping at some point inthe future.
You can put your colonies on the buy/sell part of the forum of course..
 #8020  by carlam
 27 Jun 2020, 16:54
AdamD wrote:
27 Jun 2020, 16:07
Sorry to learn of you bad reaction. Being found on the floor of your bathroom is getting serious! Hopefully the injections will work and you'll be back to beekeeping at some point inthe future.
You can put your colonies on the buy/sell part of the forum of course..
Thanks AdamD, I must have missed the buy/sell part of the forum. I'll post them there.
I very much hope the sensitisation course works too!
 #8022  by AndrewLD
 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.
 #8028  by NigelP
 28 Jun 2020, 10:07
A friend of mine finished his desensitising course and went back to beekeeping but it happened again....so he reluctantly decided that it was time to give up again...
I was the fortunate one as I "inherited" his out apiary and a heather site that he used.
 #8032  by Patrick
 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.
[/quote]

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.