NEWSLETTER #39 (English) from Urs & Izzy: Spring honey...and a lot of stings!
- Izzy the busy bee....
- 4 days ago
- 6 min read
June 2026 (Issue #39)
Dear honey lovers! Yes! we have honey! Our bees were working very hard, and this year, they have been extremely efficient in bringing nectar from the flowers around.
Also they have been very aggressive, for some strange reason. But hey, we cannot ask for everything. So, we got some honey, and a lot of stings. A lot. What do we do about it? We try to keep cool; a little scream, a momentary pain... and we don't take it personally....until you find one bee INSIDE of your protection gear, particularly, because she is usually not alone. And in that case....well... keep on reading so you see what we do then!
Are you enjoying the newsletter? Don't be shy, tell us at baerenhonig@gmx.ch , or WhatsApp us, if you prefer. We'd love to hear from you!
News from the Beehives
We have been checking the whole month for swarms. And we have set 8 traps. Beautifully crafted, and strategically placed around the hive, as you can see in the photo.
What did the bees do? Guess! they went wherever they wanted. And where they want, is always far away from the reach. Every year, to the same tree, more than 5 meters up. Yet, behold! Urs is a master with the pole bucket. What is the pole bucket? Our secret "weapon" to catch the eloping bees, and bring them back home. You can see Urs in action, catching a bee swarm here.... Coordination, strength....and patience! That swarm weighted almost 3 kilos (that is a pretty big one), and had a very nice and smooth queen who is already laying eggs at her new home!
Where is my Honey...?
Your honey is ready!!!!! Profiting from the long Pentecost weekend, we harvested the honey from our bees (you can see that's a picture from Urs in the middle of the harvest, taken last weekend). You have to wake up relatively early -we started working at 5 a.m. Why so early? Well, try moving around at 30 degrees, with a double or even triple layer of clothing -- from socks, to gloves, and everything in between, and carry to the rented mobility car, 50 meters away, wooden boxes of 20 kilos of frames and honey. Hyrox is a childrens' game compared to this. Ah, and all that with several dozen bees - if not more- trying to sting you.
Well, we got away with the honey (and several dozen stings), and now, one week later, (remember that it needs some time...) the honey is ready for you!
We have available 500g spring honey pots (500 g for 17 CHF or 250g for 11 CHF). For our friends who love comb honey, we also got this year, (price according to weight of the container) .
As soon as we get your order, Urs will deliver on his bike to your mailbox! This year's honey has a distinctive taste to elderberry, and is -- for the time being, liquid. Remember, that spring honey will, in the coming 8-10 months, start slowly but steadily becoming thicker and thicker, and then it will crystallize. So it is easier to spread on bread!
Facts & Figures
As a deterrent to an attack to the colony - or theft of honey -- bees sting. The bee's abdomen has a small bag of venom, attached to the sting, which contains about 150 micrograms of a mix of chemicals, that triggers a cascade of reactions in the human body.
Bee venom is a colourless, acidic liquid. It contains anti-inflammatory and pro-inflammatory compounds, including enzymes, sugar, minerals, and amino acids
Which is the chemical the sting so painful? Melittin, as it leads to haemolysis, which activates the pain receptors in the dermis. Melittin makes up to 50% of the total content of the venom and is a mix of up to 26 amino acids. Even if painful, melittin is antiviral, antibacterial, and has shown also anti-cancer effects on medical studies.
Bee venom also contains peptides, particularly apamin and adolapin. They act as toxins, but they also have anti-inflammatory and pain-relieving properties, and have clinical trials proving benefits on the treatment of neurological and neuro-muscular disorders. How is that possible? Everything depends on the concentration! “Even nectar is poison if taken into excess”
Venom also contains phospholipase A2, an enzyme and allergen that is responsible for the inflammation… but, again, the same enzyme has anti-inflammatory and immune protective effects, particularly for the neurons and the liver, and has anti-tumour properties.
There are other amines and peptides in less concentration (2% - 3%) all of them with a very specific mode-of-action, cascading the sudden pain, and then the subsequent inflammation and itching that can last 2 to 3 days.
As a beekeeper, do you 'get used' to stings? On paper (and on the inmune system), yes. But, in reality, well, not really. The stings still ache and itch - or get swollen. It depends on various factors, but mainly, on the 'mix' of venoms that the bee is inoculating, and the specific location where the sting is - the looser or thinner the skin, the larger the reaction. Sometimes the bee gets lucky, and the sting touches a nerve on the dermis -- you can then hear our scream across the forest....
Did you know that...?
Usually bees get aggressive because they are protective of a large amount of honey -- yet, when a colony of bees is too aggressive, apart from being very uncomfortable to work with, can represent also risk for people, pets and wild animals. The beekeeper might then decide to 'eliminate' this colony. There are some expeditive ways to eliminate the colony, which are considered humanly euthanizing. One of them is 'bathing' the whole bee-box with soapy water. The bees die instantaneously. The second one, is by sealing the hive and placing inside frozen CO2. Some beekeepers prefer to vacuum all of the bees out of the hive.
After all, it is not the bees fault to have such a bad character and short temper -- they inherit it from their mother. So, if the mother is replaced, sooner than later -- usually within 3 - 4 months, this aggressiveness should dilute and fully disappear. How do you find the queen bee among 60,000 bees....if she is not marked? Well, there is another method. It is labour intensive, but very effective.
Under normal circumstances, the Queen is too heavy to fly, she is like an obese and heavily pregnant woman trying to run a marathon. In order to prepare her for the swarming flight, the workers put her on a strict diet, and chase her around the hive for up to a week, so she 'trains' and loses weight.
As the queen cannot fly, we take all of the frames with the bees some 10 meters away from the bee-box, and shake the bees off the frames, to a plastic blanket. The bees will fly back to their 'home'. The Queen cannot fly, so she will stay in the blanket. After a couple of hours, the bees at the bee-box will realize that they are Queenless, as the remaining QMP (Queen Mandibular Pheromone) will have faded. And they will then attempt to make a new Queen. And there is where we can introduce a new Queen bee. where a new one will be 'waiting' for them. A sweet new Queen, for a (we hope) sweet new Colony.
Swiss Bees
We are starting a short "Bee-art critic" contest with the readers of our newsletter. Izzy is an amateur artist, and has created a series of 'graffiti' style drawings on bees and beekeeping. Each drawing represents a behavior of the bees, or an activity at the apiary undertaken by the beekeeper.
So here is the contest: We would like you to guess what is
(a) the bee-behaviour or beekeeper activity that is depicted in the graffiti,
and/or
(b) a creative and ludic title for the painting.
Send us (via whatsapp / email / SMS) your answer for (a) and/or (b). (Or any comment or critic you might have on the painting) The first five winners every bi-monthly, will receive in their mailboxes a bio-Bienenkuss (lippenbalm mit propolis).
And the answer (and also the funniest titles) will be presented in the next bimonthly!
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