Traveling with Bees

I am in Sebastopol vending at Tribal Fest.  We're at the Fairfield Inn, and it turns out that there is a beekeeping supply about half a block away.   BeeKind has bee products in the front--candles, honey, waxes, and wellness items and there is a separate room with bee keeping supplies.  Behind the building is the bee yard with several hives.  

I brought a jar of bees up with me since I'm going to be here for four days, but I only had about 3 left.
Sometimes that's enough, and sometimes it isn't.  One might escape, one might not sting, one might be too deep in the jar for me to easily pick with the tweezers--it's better to have a few more than that.  Plus, I don't like to keep the bees in the jar for very long.   I'd rather use them for 4 or 5 days then release the remaining ones.  Besides, they have to poop.  They don't like to poop when they're in the jar.  Can you imagine holding it for 4 days?  Plus, the longer a bee is in the jar, the more likely she is to poop on me when I pull her out.  That happened to me yesterday.  Eww.  

The ladies, Vanessa and...shoot I forgot her name (she was probably around my age with long brown hair and burgandy arm warmers) were so kind.  She took me out to the hives and let me collect some bees.  It was really easy because they had several cardboard hives with round openings, so I could just hold the jar over the hole and they crawled right in.  It's a little more involved when I collect them from the wooden hives--I actually have to get into the hive by lifting off the lid and the inner cover, so this way was easy.

I also purchased some bee venom cream and pollen capsules.  When I got back to the hotel I opened the venom cream because I wanted to see how it smelled.  It was in the kind of tube that has the end sealed off with some aluminum, and you have to puncture it to get it open.  When I did, a little squirted out--I think because it was warm, and so I rubbed it on my hands.  It was a very lightweight cream.

Everything was fine for about a minute, and then... Then the itching started.   What initially was a slight tingling was quickly a burning brutal burning bee venom rash.  Unfortunately my phone battery had died because I forgot to bring the charger with me--otherwise I would have taken a picture because my hands were *scarlet* where I rubbed it in.  Thankfully it only lasted about 10 minutes and then I was fine.  They're still a little pink and tender now that it's 4 hours later.  I don't know if it's going to itch like that every time or if it is something that I will grow accustomed to just like the stinging.  But with all the other stings,  I have been scratching at my hands a lot lately.  People are going to wonder about me and about where I've been putting my hands...

I think I'm going to go back tomorrow and get my very own bee veil so that I don't have to borrow Earl's every time I go with him to the hives. 

I think that this might be a neat way to meet people when I travel!   There's a network list for members of the American Apitherapy Society so I can find the beekeepers wherever I go!