The importance of being stung.

Someone will probably shoot me down here, but is it possible that bees are capable of regulating how much venom is injected? I know you're supposed to remove the stinger to prevent more venom being injected, but I know some snakes are capable of delivering a dry bite. I don't know enough about the anatomy of a bee's sting to know, but just a theory not based on any evidence of course.

Excession said:

How exactly do people acquainted with beekeepers get 'exposed to bee protein'?
I assume this means bits of bee?
After all protein isn't like fungal spores...

Or is bee protein floating around beekeepers like some sort of radiation?
Obviously it can't just enter the body so must be ingested or exposed cuts or something?

Would be good to hear of some science behind this, because at face value it doesn't make much sense..

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In my daughter's case...I worked bees days and my wife worked as an RN at the hospital from 3-11pm. She'd drop the kids off at day care and I'd pick them up on my way home. The kids would ride in my bee truck with me in my dirty bee clothes. When they were school age, the bus dropped them off and I picked them up after work. When Gaelen was 14, she was stung while I helped her with her homework...bee must have been in my clothes. She had a severe reaction and was in trouble by the time I got her to the hospital. Good thing it was only a 5 mile drive.

I have no science to support what I'm saying, only what I've observed during my beekeeping career and what our allergist told us. Perhaps someone can dig something up.

margob99 said:

There is credible research literature on this topic - about beekeepers' families developing allergies due to beekeeper suits lying around in the house. …

ETA: Here's a link http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/15985817

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From which, it seems that LESS THAN TEN stings per year is a 'major' risk factor … and there's me being careful!

… Major risk factors for allergic sting reactions in beekeepers are: fewer than 10 annual stings …

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Would you be exposed by eating honey? Considering it has been in the bees honey stomach, I imagine some bee stuff would be included in the honey.