Bees?

[Steve Frazier]

I'm sure no one will believe me, but two times I shot bumble bees out of the air with my pellet gun.

I believe it. I did the same thing when I was a kid, luckiest shot I've made in my life! I was shooting at the bumble bees in my Mom's flower garden with my Daisy BB gun without much success. I ended up shooting the flower out from under one and it pissed him off to where he came after me. I ran, cocked the gun on the fly, spun and shot from the hip. To my amazement, I watched the bee do a dive bomb to the ground. I stood there for a second telling myself that could never have just happened, but when I went and found the bee, sure enough I had shot its head off!! A once in a lifetime shot!

In another bee story, I was moving my J/D 410 to a job by driving unaware that yellow jackets had built a nest in the headliner. One came down and stung me on the tip of the ear, I've never experienced that much pain in my life!! I continued driving, but screamed in pain for 20 minutes while doing so! It must have been comical to hear me drive by.

 

[Dozerboy]

I'm sure no one will believe me, but two times I shot bumble bees out of the air with my pellet gun.

X3 I used to do it all the time, but they where just hovering over the flowers not flying around. You didn't need to aim or even use a BB just get the muzzle right close.

 

[Countryboy]

This looks like a good place for another story...When I was a teenager we were loading flat rocks (at a pit) by hand, into the front bucket of the loader which in turn was dumping them onto a truck. These rocks were to be used to fill the rock baskets at the end of a large culvert.

I used to be terrified of bees and hornets back then. One day as I was working a bee started buzzing around my head so I just took off running like a streak. Guy in the truck see me take off and running flat out across the pit. Also he seen my coworker right on my heels running flat out.

When we got to the truck he asked what in the heck was going on? I said a dam bee was buzzing around my head at which he began laughing. He asked my buddy Jim if the same bee was bothering him(Jim had no fear of bee's) as he was on my heels. Jim's reply was... bee??...I thought he saw a snake!!! Thought the truck driver was going to crap in his pants from laughing so hard

Bees, wasps, hornets I hate the little buggars.

When I was a kid I went to answer the front door. As soon as I opened the door unbeknownst to me there was a wasp nest above the door. One landed on my finger and stung the crap out of it. I slung my finger to remove it and I slung it onto my mouth ( I can't be making this up). So I not only had a stinging finger but a swollen stinging lip.

Clearing underbrush with an unclosed bobcat - there is only one way out and that is through the nest you just destroyed. OUCH. You can run a hell of alot faster than that bobcat will go.

Cutting silt fence lines with a chainsaw. Combine yellow jacket nest around tree, loud chainsaw and unsuspecting operator (me) and you have a Benny Hill moment. There was a strewn trail of a chainsaw, safety glasses, hardhat, shirt, 2-way radio and I think my britches from the scene of the crime to my safe place.

FYI -A little gasoline goes a long way in the genocide of a hive.

Man yall are killing me. :lmao :lmao :lmao

 

[John DiMartino]

This is good reading guys! Thank you I needed the laughs . Ive gotten stung so much I lost count of the times,but like you guys said with equipment running and your attention focused on the job,you dont realize you being attacked until its too late! When i brush hog our fields,if im lucky ill see the first few bees stinging the hood of the tractorointhead ,(they are the dumb ones),by then i usually feel the burn from a few bee stings myself.I usually ride it out on the tractor,kill the PTO,pick up the implement and hit 4th gr hi range(about 15mph).

 

[Grader4me]

Fact or Fiction

One more round at the bee's guy's...another story...

I heard a story today that I would like to share. We are currently putting on chainsaw/thinning saw courses in our department. On the thinning saw one of the things that is stressed is make sure that the emergency release is working on the harness. This is for a couple of reasons...in case the saw catches fire or in event that you get into a hornets nest, you would want to drop the saw and run like heck.
One guy pipes up and said "do you know the best way to go back and get the saw out of the hornets nest without getting stung?"
His answer was...cut a spruce bough...hold it in front of your face and just walk in and get the saw ...you won't get stung. Now he said...Make sure that it is a spruce as if it is a fir they will sting you. Now of course we all thought that was a pretty good yarn and we all had a great laugh....except for the guy telling the story...he never cracked a smile.

Anyone willing to give it a try??:beatsme

 

[CM1995]

One more round at the bee's guy's...another story...

I heard a story today that I would like to share. We are currently putting on chainsaw/thinning saw courses in our department. On the thinning saw one of the things that is stressed is make sure that the emergency release is working on the harness. This is for a couple of reasons...in case the saw catches fire or in event that you get into a hornets nest, you would want to drop the saw and run like heck.
One guy pipes up and said "do you know the best way to go back and get the saw out of the hornets nest without getting stung?"
His answer was...cut a spruce bough...hold it in front of your face and just walk in and get the saw ...you won't get stung. Now he said...Make sure that it is a spruce as if it is a fir they will sting you. Now of course we all thought that was a pretty good yarn and we all had a great laugh....except for the guy telling the story...he never cracked a smile.

Anyone willing to give it a try??:beatsme

I think we need to leave that to the myth busters.

 

[Steve Frazier]

I've got another one to add.

When I was in my teens I was mowing our filed with the old Case VAC farm tractor and a 6' Mott hammer knife mower. I ran over a yellow jacket nest and saw a swarm coming at me. The only thing I could think to do was jump off and run!! I didn't think to shut the tractor down, I just jumped off and ran like hell. When I was at a safe distance, I realized what I had just done and turned around to see what the tractor was doing. There it was, going across the field still mowing. It continued until it hit a tree and stalled. No damage to the tractor or the tree and no one was hurt.

Not one of the smarter things I've done, but I was a dumb kid at the time!

 

[Mike J]

I got stung by a bee that looked sort of like a bumble bee but it was about half the size. They were living in a chunk of wood that was laying in some high grass. I have been stung before by other types of bees and never had any problems but this one got me on my eye brow and my whole eye got swollen shut. It took about 8 or 10 hours untill i couldn't see out of that eye any more. My sister saw me then and started giving me lots of benadryl. That took the swelling down and made me supper sleepy and kinda light headed the next day.

 

[dr501]

in ground bees my dad would find the hole and wait till nite and pour a lil bit of gass down the hole and touch it off it was cool to hear the boom under ground and see the fire beller up ... no more bees

 

[RollOver Pete]

Been there....
Notice the chicken-poop people I'm working for....
Hiding be hind a car....:naughty

 

[Dirtman2007]

Been stung way to many times. I was on the tractor oneday bush hogging a feild when I just became attacked by yellow jackets. ended up getting stung 8 times on the face and ears, man that's a pain you will never forget. I never knew that tractor could go so fast mowing, by the time I got back to the truck they had all blown off along with my hat and shirt. I did find my shirt in one peice but the hat was shreaded by the bush hog


Here's a funny one. It was a hot summer day and we were looking at a clearing site we were working on with the owners. I was wearing shorts and workboots. While walking around at the site looking at wht else needed to be done I stepped into a yellow jackets nest and sure enough one flew right down into my boot. I started yelling and hopping on one legs as that thing ate me alive. Finally after kicking a pulling I got my boot off and got the bee out. Not the easiest thing in the world trying to removed the stinger out of your foot without the proper tools

 

[Grader4me]

Ever been stung here?

I have another one.The supervisor and myself was driving in the pickup one fine day to look at a job. First I will tell you a little about my supervisor back then. He was a big rugged fella, fine upstanding god fearing folk. His favorite saying was "Judas Priest" and he used this alot in his conversations. This was the closest to a swear word he has ever used.
Anyway we were driving along with the windows down and all of a sudden I hear him muttering "judas, judas, judas, judas" then a big holler "Judas priest!!" I jumped in my seat and asked him what in the hell was wrong. He looked at me and there was a tear coming down his face. He said painfully "judas priest... a bee stung my bag"
I laughed so hard I started to cry as well..

 

[jughead]

every spring i sit on my front porch and shoot bees with my 22. i use bird shot of course. they bore into the wood. cold beer mild day lot of fun. 3 out of 4 yesterday

 

[camara]

I spent a week in the hospital for this one I was on Cape Cod clearing a house lot. I was knocking over trees with my PC400 when a swarm came up out of the ground. A big one got me over my right eye. I drove home, almost 90 miles, after being stung. This picture was taken 2 hours after that sting! The other swelled shut about an hour or so later. First time I have ever been stung! Wife took me to the hospital!

 

[Dirtman2007]

I spent a week in the hospital for this one I was on Cape Cod clearing a house lot. I was knocking over trees with my PC400 when a swarm came up out of the ground. A big one got me over my right eye. I drove home, almost 90 miles, after being stung. This picture was taken 2 hours after that sting! The other swelled shut about an hour or so later. First time I have ever been stung! Wife took me to the hospital!

Holy crap! What kinda bees were those??? I got stung 8 times on the face and never swelled up that much.

 

[carlsharp]

I have encountered bees a few time here in So CA, fortunately few stings. What amazes me are the African cross ('killer') bees. They are extremely vicious and will target you like a missile. While regular honey bees will just mill around, I have more than once seen an African cross chase a guy for hundreds of feet while he's throwing his hardhat and swinging his vest, dive-bombing him the whole way. They are NASTY!

 

[zhkent]

Bee story

I was about 5 and Dad, brother and another guy were putting hay in the barn.
It was a pole barn and had 2x12's nailed on the inside of the poles like a fence.
These boards were just right for a 5 year old to stand on the bottom one and hold on to the top one, kinda shuffle along.
I still remember how soft and fuzzy a great big yellow jackets nest felt on my hand. It was behind the top board I was holding on to and I couldn't see it.
Kinda tickles, all those wings stickin out of those holes.
However yellow jackets do not like anything about tickling, or having there wings touched.
I got stung several times before running kicked in. Course once I started running then the bees knew who to chase and sting.
Dad must of caught up with me, remember being on the ground well away from the barn amidst much excitement, must of been some serious swatting going on.

 

[bear]

Been lucky with bees so far never any major stings at work. But snakes that's a different story, I had been helping a friend build a hunting cabin. since it had been a few days since we had been there a copperhead had evidently been chasing mice or was trying to get out of the sun. i was in the middle of cutting a window and all the exhaust was giong up under the roof, mr copperhead decides to drop in on me and i dropped the saw, "had a hershey squirt" and ran like ****. evidently the noise and exhauist had mr. no shoulders disoriented and didn't bite me. I don't mind snakes i expect to be there but those that drop in are bad.

 

[DirtHauler]

My fathers biggest fear with bees involved his IH TD-7 dozer or his IH 125e tracked loader. The fear was that if you got into bees and jumped out and ran, the machine would run at full throttle. Decelerators are far less common now. At least you were likely to trip over the lever that would drop the transmission out of gear on the way off of the machine. Personally I have always felt safer in the machine than out. I never have understood guys jumping off of machines when they get in trouble.

 

[hhmarshall]

Well with the new hydrostat dozers, they all have decelerators. And I have been there before clearing brush with the open cab 850K I used to have. I hit two bee hives in a row. After I hit the first nest and saw them come out, I moved down about 50 yards and immediately hit another. I got stung in the nose by one and thought I could just tough it out. Man was I wrong. After that first sting, both hives came after me. I got hit at least 40 times on my face, neck and arms. They followed me for 200 yards until I jumped in a pond. After I got out and regained my senses, I saw the dozer running on full throttle on top of a brush pile. Apprently I snapped the key off in the ignition trying to turn it off and get the hell out.