Tomorrow morning, I drive to Jamaica Plain, pick up 10,000 bees in a box, and drive them for two hours to Cape Cod.

10,000 stinging insects, with enough venom to kill several horses, confined in my SUV, with me.

What could go wrong?

The roving bear saga on Cape Cod has ended, and a lot of beekeepers are breathing a sigh of relief. The bear was “darted” last night, and brought to western Massachusetts where it was released into the woods.

Just in time, as my bees arrive tomorrow!

“Will you get stung”? I get asked that question all the time, and of course the answer is “eventually, yes”. But before you recoil at the thought, and fear for your own safely, remember that honey bees are very gentle insects. Unless you are a plant, they have no interest in even being near you (or any other animal), and they will only sting as a last ditch effort to protect their colony – specifically the Queen.

What all of this means is that you can get within 10 feet of a hive and never work about being stung, and an experienced beekeeper can open a hive with their bare hands while bees crawl all over them. While getting stung does happen to most beekeepers on a semi-regular basis, remember that they are opening hives, and altering the home of +50,000 bees, and sometimes stealing their food. It’s amazing to me that the bees don’t hunt you down when you take their honey. If it were me, I’d be pissed.

If you’ve even been stung as a kid, or even as an adult, it probably wasn’t from a honey bee – just another type of insect. And here are some facts that make me say that:

• Honey bees are vegetarians. They have nothing to gain by stinging animals or humans.
• Honey bees focus on gathering pollen and nectar from plants. People and other animals are just obstacles to be flown around.
• Wasps, hornets, and yellow jackets (a type of wasp) are carnivores, and are driven to sting, and eat their prey. And yes, you look like prey.
• Yellow jackets, often found buzzing around food at picnics, look a like what people think of as honey bee as they are black and yellow striped.
• If you are in a honey bee’s way, or are perceived as a threat to a honey bee, they will bump into you to try and make you move away before they try and sting you.

Knowing these facts, doesn’t it make sense to that when you think you got stung by a “bee”, it wasn’t a honey bee? If you want to fear a flying insect, fear the common wasp or the yellow jacket. They’re aggressive, sting, and don’t think twice about doing it. Best to avoid them if possible.

But honey bees, given the right circumstance, will sting. It only takes one bee to give you a sting, and there may be 10 to 50 thousand of them living in the hive. Here are some rules to follow to avoid being stung:

• Don’t ever touch, open, or in any way try and interact with a hive unless you are with a beekeeper. Remember that the hive is their home. Don’t be a home invader.
• Stay away, at least 30 feet, from a hive, especially the entrance to a hive. Bees fly in and out of a hive like airplanes – they need a flight path and place to land. The front entrance is where you will find the most amount of bees, and blocking their flight path is just going to irritate them.
• Don’t eat bananas and get near a hive. Bananas smell like the warning pheromone that bees give off when they sense danger, so even the slightest smell of bananas around bees is just going to make they edgy.
• Don’t wear wool clothing or black clothing near a hive. Bears and bees are not friends. Looking like a bear in a big black wool coat is just asking for trouble.

By following the simple rules above, you can avoid 99% of stings from any honey bee. If you do get stung, a normal dose of benadryl, will help easy the pain of the sting by lowering your histamines, but different people react differently. About only 1 in 1,000 people are allergic to the point of needing medical attention from a sting. Let’s hope you’re not one of them.

On Wednesday, June 13, 2012, I will drive outside of Boston, pick up 10,000 bees, put them in the back of my SUV, and drive almost 2 hours down into Cape Cod.

Ten thousand stinging insects and me… In a car… Stuck in traffic at the Sagamore bridge. What could go wrong?

With any luck, they will be set up at One Standish by noon, and starting to forage for local nectar that afternoon. At least that’s the plan. But as any beekeeper will tell you, when dealing with bees, prepare to be surprised.

The bees are from an apiary in Jamacia Plain (outside of Boston) and are coming from an over-wintered colony with a mutt queen – just as I had hoped for. I’m very worried about CCD (Colony Collapse Disorder), and want to make every effort to make sure I am helping to breed strong, healthy bees that can survive in New England.

As many other before me, I will use the blog to chronicle the trials and tribulations of being new backyard beekeeper. Wish me, and the little ladies, luck with the New England weather.

Thank you Victoria, my friend who rekindled my curiosity in this crazy hobby (OK, OK, obsession). Without your invitation, I’m not sure I would have started what it sure to be an incredible journey.

A new toy and a new suit. What more could a boy asked for? Perhaps instructions on how be a beekeeper…