SNIPY...
Unless it was a Queen bee. They have no barbs on their sting. They can sting away as often as they like, and fly away happily to go eat their rich royal jelly. They're not poor at all.

Yes but you have to be really tasty, special, lucky or crazy to be attacked by a queen.


You are probably more likely to win the top prize in the lottery than be stung by a queen bee :o)


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SNIPY...
Unless it was a Queen bee. They have no barbs on their sting. They can sting away as often as they like, and fly away happily to go eat their rich royal jelly. They're not poor at all.

Yes but you have to be really tasty, special, lucky or crazy to be attacked by a queen bee :o)


(You are probably more likely to win the top prize in the lottery than be stung by a queen bee..)


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You're probably very right. A Queen bee only leaves the hive on two occasions. Once on a mating flight when she is very young, and secondly a new Queen who leads a swarm from the hive. You'd be very unlucky to find yourself in the middle of a swarm, but very unlikely to be stung since they have gorged themselves with honey before leaving the hive and are as docile as bees can get.

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Here's a photo I took of a bee that probably hasn't stung anyone

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I got stung by a bee yesterday. Have been stung by yellow-jacket wasps before, but this one was an actual honeybee. My neighbor keeps several hives and I deliberately plant "bee-invitation" plants. Usually manage to garden in harmony with them.

The "incident" wasn't really the bee's fault. I think it was an old, sick, confused bee and my finger sort of collided with it.

Any gardener remedies for bee stings?

Bee stings are acid so supposedly putting an alkali on will help. Bicarbonate of soda will in theory neutralise the sting.

Wasp stings are alkali so you would need to put vinagar on on that.

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Reality Internet Personality

My mother's advise in Germany would be, coat it with flour. My American mom would advise, pressing a lemon against the sting area.

The lemon would work for a wasp sting, but not a bee sting. :)

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Reality Internet Personality

Ice, you take such beautiful pictures! And you have a lovely garden!
Keep the piccies' coming!

Luke.

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- Luke.

Ice, you take such beautiful pictures! And you have a lovely garden!
Keep the piccies' coming!

Luke.

Thank you Luke, a very much appreciated comment. I took the photo of the bee on the flower at RHS garden centre, Wisley UK, almost a year ago, in August of last year when I got my first D-SLR, a Canon 400D. (I have a Canon 40D now). As much as I like the 400D and the results I get with it, I just love the 40D – it’s so much better for what I want to do with photography.

This is one of my smaller hanging baskets in my garden gazebo

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Passion flowers on my garden fence

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I had an interesting pair of visitors in my garden recently

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It's been nice to watch the birds feed in my garden

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Of course the birds have to watch out when my cats are in the garden, particularly my Burmese here who seems to want to stalk and chase anything that moves.

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I have a rather splendid water lilly coming out in my garden pond.

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are those "interesting visitors" she magpies or young he magpies or something completely different.

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are those "interesting visitors" she magpies or young he magpies or something completely different.

I really don't know what they are. Magpies are often seen as black and white, but the black wings and tail, however, are a beautiful glossy, iridescent blue, green and purple. Or even more colourful in some cases.

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are those "interesting visitors" she magpies or young he magpies or something completely different.

I really don't know what they are. Magpies are often seen as black and white, but the black wings and tail, however, are a beautiful glossy, iridescent blue, green and purple. Or even more colourful in some cases.

....snip

I don't know what Magpies look like else where but here (Midlands UK) they are black and white with some metalic blue-ish bits.


... Click.


Culturally everyone treats them like they are royalty.

I live on the edge of my city and these little guys will suddenly turn up like a pack of bouncers 8 to 13 strong and spread themselves out over a garden or field intimidating and eeking out every tiny creature or fleshy morsel around.

The ones near me spread out in a loose diamond pattern 20 yards long on the ground. (The boss at the front and clever one at the rear.)

They are quite nice to watch as they are so brave.

They are well dressed little carnivors. (A bit like wasps but without the gaudy clothing..)




PS: (ICE: Have you ever thought about using your garden to produce food?... How about scrummy Magpie Pies :o))



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I believe those birds are jays in your garden Ice..

I believe those birds are jays in your garden Ice..

I think you might be right http://www.rspb.org.uk/wildlife/birdguide/name/j/jay/index.asp

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PS: (ICE: Have you ever thought about using your garden to produce food?... How about scrummy Magpie Pies :o))

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I don't think I'm cut out to be a farmer. I can grow potatoes, tomatoes, strawberries and have a couple of apple trees, but everything else I've tried to grow just hasn't been worth the effort with very little ending up in the kitchen. Magpies are protected, you have to leave them be.

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PS: (ICE: Have you ever thought about using your garden to produce food?... How about scrummy Magpie Pies :o))

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I don't think I'm cut out to be a farmer. I can grow potatoes, tomatoes, strawberries and have a couple of apple trees, but everything else I've tried to grow just hasn't been worth the effort with very little ending up in the kitchen. Magpies are protected, you have to leave them be.

I wasn't suggesting you be a "farmer".

A 'harvester's life is a bit more easy :o)


The law does not exclude you from consuming dead Magpies. (The law simply states you should not kill a Magpie without legal cause.)

Magpies are protected but you are allowed by law to defend crops, wild birds, public safety from them.


Hehehhe... Sorry. I am being cheeky...

I don't eat meat so I don't know what the taste difference between a Chicken, Turkey, Jackdaw, Magpie, Pigeon, Crow, Jay or Blackbird is :o)


Legally if you use a part of your land to feed yourself and Magpies disrupt this you do have the right to stop them.

If one or two die in the process there is no legal reason to stop you cooking them up :o)))



PS: Sorry: Crazy post by me... Hehe.. Ooops.. :o))

I've had another Jay in my garden. You can see it feed on a peanut clutched between its claws.

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