South Gippsland Beekeepers Inc.
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  • Home
  • Calendar
    • 2023 Calendar Meeting Dates & Subjects
    • Beginner Courses
  • Resources / Newsletters
    • Inside the Beehive Booklet
    • Club Services
    • Recommended Reading & Instructional Video
    • Book Reviews
    • Newsletters >
      • 2022
      • 2021
      • 2020
      • 2019
    • Speaker Video Archives
  • Info / M'ship
    • Membership / New Beekeepers >
      • Membership
      • Reading for New Beekeepers
    • Honey Bee Health & BioSecurity
    • Starting up
    • Winter Jobs
    • The Rewards
    • The Pain

The Pain of ​Getting Stung​

What about being stung?

(Yes this can be  quite painful - but usually brief) 
For most people, the stings are not life threatening and can be painful for a few seconds to hours and itchy for a few days. However, a few unlucky people suffer severe allergic reactions to bee stings and on rare occasions these can be severe enough to require medical treatment. For beginners, we would recommend that they wear protective clothing when inspecting active beehives.

Please note that the person in the picture is being deliberately stung in a bee-venom therapy session being carried out in Japan! Please don't try this at home!

For further information about bee stings please read the article
Treatment for Bee Stings - 
​ by RN: Nola McGann
Picture

Picture

Is beekeeping a time consuming hobby?

Yes, it certainly can be, especially if you are diligent and concerned for your bees wellbeing - and isn't that why you would like to get into beekeeping in the first place? These little creatures will be your responsibility, they are livestock and as such you are required to care for them to the best of your ability and adhere to the Victorian Apiary Code of Practice and the Australian Honey Bee Bio-Security Code of Practice.
From Spring until Autumn you will need to keep an eye on your hive for a number of reasons; swarm prevention, disease prevention, control and management, plus many more general surveillance reasons. 
Hardware & equipment has to be maintained. Hives need to be checked regularly. Honey may need to be harvested and processed.  You need to consider where you are going to keep your bees: if that will be away from your home you must factor in the travelling time and transportation of equipment to and from the apiary site.
While bees can and will look after themselves, as long as you consider yourself to be a beekeeper you must be prepared to give adequate time to do the job well. You owe it to your bees to protect and manage them responsibly.

Finding the Queen

(sometimes this is a real pain in the neck, but we have lots of options)
She can be very elusive and snappy getting around the hive and there are times when you really have to find her. Whether is be to dispatch her in order to introduce another queen or simply to be sure that the hive has a queen,  here is the link to an article by Hilary Kearney that should give you the heads up! 
Queenspotting
Site updated 28th September 2023
Contact Us
Location
​
St Peters Anglican Church Hall,
Cnr McCartin & Bruce Sts
Leongatha VIC
Committee 2023-2024
​President: Andy Teitge - email - 
0437 035 558
1st Vice President: Peter Gatehouse - email - 0423 244 107
​2nd Vice President: Joe Borg - email - 
 0407 505 109

Secretary: Anna Jones - email - 0411 770 062
​Treasurer: Jackie Checkley - email - 0428 515 396

Club Meetings
2nd Thursday Feb - Nov at 7.30pm 
​with Beginner's Group at 7pm 

​Website maintained by Bron Barton - SGB Member - 0433 035 143