# Keeping bees in a jar for bee venom therapy



## Rader Sidetrack

Welcome to Beesource!

If you expect to do apitherapy over an extended period of time, the best way to do it is to acquire and maintain a hive of your own, or have one maintained by someone else very close by.

Bees captured in a jar will not reliably return to the jar even with sugar water/honey in the jar. They will instead look for a hive nearby that has a live queen that they can join. A week is about the _maximum _that I would expect bees captured in a jar to live.

What _might _happen is that foraging bees from a nearby hive might be attracted to your feed (on a regular basis) and you could capture a few of those for apitherapy. 

Foraging bees tell other bees from their hive about good food sources, so if you capture _all _the bees attracted to your food, you may not get many more. Just take a few bees each time.


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## ruthiesbees

The bees may need more air than just a couple of holes punched in the lid. They can also be sensitive to whatever was in the container before they were. I've had the best luck with a canning jar with a piece of beeswax for them to climb on. But I replaced the metal lid with the plastic screening that you can find in a craft store. I would put drops of honey and some water on the grid for them to eat. They don't need a lot when they are confined, and if their stomach is full of honey, they can't sting you very well. I've kept bees inside my house for more than 10 days this way. You can also find an apitherapy box on ebay, which allows them a little more room. I copied the design and built my own. I'll try and get some pictures posted for you.

Like Radar said, it's best if you can keep your own hive for the "freshest bees". The bee stings are different based on what time of year and which bee you happen to get. I've been doing BVT since last fall with some good success.

There is also a product called a pseudo queen, which is QMP pheramone, that mimics a queen for the bees. You can buy it at Mann Lake, and there is actually someone who ships apitherapy boxes that uses it in his boxes. Only if there is a real queen (or fake queen scent) in your box will your bees return to your box. (and most likely not since there is no brood or honey stores). Northern bees can go for weeks without a cleansing flight, so you might be able to get 14-20 days out of your bees if you minimally feed them and keep them cool.


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## ruthiesbees

http://ferrisapiaries.com/?page_id=79

The is the company that ships bees and talks about the pseudo queen.


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## reidflys

not sure if you already know but after the bees die you can still sting 
yourself with there stinger sometimes.
I am looking for better forceps to hold the bee while I sting. any thoughts?


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## ruthiesbees

Here are my two containers that I use to keep bees in the house for apitherapy. The reverse tweezers that I use were too tight and kept squishing the bee so I had to open them up a little bit. The forceps didn't close tight enough (without squishing the bee) for my shaking hands to keep the bee secure enough for a sting.


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## Michael Palmer

I knew Charles Mraz, a Vermont apitherapist known around the world. His method of keeping bees in a jar worked very well.

Quart canning jar with air holes in the cover.
Toilet paper cardboard tube. Cut 2 vees in the bottom of the tube. 
Add 1/4" honey to the bottom of the jar. 
Add a wad of toilet paper on the honey…enough paper to cover the honey.
Place tube on paper.
Add bees.

The bees feed on the honey along the edge of the paper. They cluster on the tube.


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## Bee Bliss

To the jar that Michael Palmer mentions, add a piece of flexible window screen with a slit in over the top of the jar. Secure with rubber bands around the jar rings area. Insert the reversible tweezers into the slit to grab a bee by head or thorax only. When done grabbing bees, screw the cover with holes back on over the screen. It does fit.

Keep bees in a dark place. They usually last up to two weeks. They can also be fed with sugar cubes which dissolve on the bottom with a few drops of water.

Keep a log of your stings............date, location of sting, number of stings that day, number of stings to date, etc.

Apitherapists say to keep the stingers in for 15 minutes before removing. Icing prior to stinging that location really helps with knocking down the punch. Of course, a person should make sure they are not allergic to bee venom before doing apitherapy.


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