How to handle a Bee Sting

We live on a farm.

We are beekeepers.

It happens….

Bee Stings.

It may have happened last night… to me… for the first time as a bee keeper….after I jiggled the bee feeder 3 times because I couldn’t get the dang thing loose because of the heat…. it may have.  Right on the forehead.  Which honestly, the only thing I was disappointed with is it didn’t sting me  right in a forehead crease.  Wouldn’t that be like farm girl botox or something?  Maybe not.  Maybe so.

We have a tried and true way of dealing with bee stings around here.
And I will get to that tried and true way… but first let’s take a moment and talk about a disclaimer:

(disclaimer: We are NOT doctors nor do we have any severe bee sting allergies… so please don’t take this as medical gospel.  This is what a momma of a lot of kids and a beekeeper does when someone in this house gets stung.  Being allergic to bees is a serious medical condition and baking soda will not help… if you have a severe reaction to a bee sting…call 911)

Ok now with that out of the way….

Let’s talk about what we do with great success:

Step 1.) Settle down…it is a bee sting, you weren’t harpooned by a narwhale.

Step 2.) Remove the stinger.  Some say use a credit card …I say just get the thing out. Flick.Pick. Scrape. Pluck. Whatever…just get it out!

Step 3.) take 3 Apis Mellifica (don’t chew them…just let them dissolve)

Step 4.) Mix up a poultice of baking soda, a dash of salt and just enough water to make a paste. Apply directly to the stung area.

Step 5.) Rest and let the previous steps do their thing.

~

There are other remedies… but generally we just stick to what works.

Here are a few other ideas if you like more variety:

Honey… yes, yes it is antibacterial and wonderful… but smearing it on your skin will alert the local bug population of the buffet.  So I figure I would have a bee sting and collection of other bug bites.

Chewed up plantain weed…. sure, I guess if I was out in nature that sounds fine.  I just will have to muscle through the fact that a squirrel  previously probably wee wee’d on it , while I chew it up into a paste.

Ice… a solid plan if you ask me.  It won’t draw out the venom but I know from past experience it is very relieving.

Calamine lotion… who doesn’t love it’s pale pink glow.  Works well but has always reminded me of being at Disney world and my grandmother thinking I had gotten into chiggers but really I had chicken pox.  I was at Disney world in the heat, slathered in calamine lotion with a high fever and chicken pox…good times.  But you don’t have that memory so use it.  I hear it works well.

Vinegar dabbed on with a cotton ball … makes solid sense.