# Can Queen bees sting?



## camero7

Yes, but they seldom do.


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## JBees

Thanks Camero7.


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## Joseph Clemens

Yes, they can sting, and as virgins they frequently sting-to-death unemerged virgin queens and any other queen (virgin or otherwise) they encounter. As for stinging other things, like, for instance, humans - I have heard it said, but haven't experienced it for myself, yet. Not that I want to.


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## ashb82

so does the stinger not get pulled out like the workers


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## sqkcrk

Yes, queens can sting, but they seldon do. Their sting lancets aren't barbed like worker bees sting lancets are, so they don't get pulled out.


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## Solomon Parker

Is there anyone around who's actually experienced it? I haven't, but I try not to handle the queen unless absolutely necessary.

Been stung by plenty of other barb free stingers though. inch:


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## Oldtimer

yes, killing an unwanted virgin one time I was stung. Don't know if that was her intention.

Bear in mind, new virgins are hostile little things. They are so ready to fight other virgins that I've seen them wrestling workers, just how they would wrestle another queen.

Mated queens, i don't think so. I mark queens by holding them by the legs, which would give them plenty of opportunity to sting, but they don't.

Just out of interest, to test my new queen cell incubator I ran some cells in it right through till they hatched. Just yesterday they hatched, and when I looked just about all the virgins had ended up in the water tray and drowned. However there was one drowning queen, barely alive, but still attacking the dead queen next to it.


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## Michael Bush

http://www.beesource.com/forums/showthread.php?199455-Queen-Bee-Stings
http://www.beesource.com/forums/archive/index.php/t-187815.html
http://www.beesource.com/forums/archive/index.php/t-220354.html
http://www.beesource.com/forums/showthread.php?187815-Do-Queens-Sting
http://www.beesource.com/forums/archive/index.php/t-256933.html?
http://www.bushfarms.com/beesbetter... Bee as Fully Developed a Female as the Queen


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## Ted Kretschmann

Yes, I have been popped by queens before. When working in the queen yard, you catch and handle a lot of queens. Well, you get those queen's scents on your fingers and hands. So if you grab the queen in a wrong improper way while trying to cage her. And if she smells the other queen's scents-OUCH!! She will sting you. While it does not hurt as bad as a workers bees sting, you still know you have been stung. Most of the time, queens are well behaved and when handled with care during caging, rarely sting. TED


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## Oldtimer

Now I've heard it all LOL! 



Michael Bush said:


> Andy Nachbaur says you shouldn't put them in your mouth:
> 
> "BTW Queens do sting, they have a stinger without barbs so they can sock it too you repeated times and it hurts on tender tissue such as the inside of the mouth. QUEENS SHOULD NEVER BE CARRIED INSIDE THE MOUTH! And especially eight of ten young mated queens at a time, as they do sting and it hurts and it's hard to spit out those $5 bills and risk harming them or having them fly back to the nucs and having to catch them next go around. I won't bore all again with the details of how I came to do such unsophisticated bee tests, but it was not for science, had more to do with the fun of being a commercial beekeeper in a commercial beekeeping community, a hot late spring afternoon and helping an old friend catch queens. Maybe those queens beekeepers find once in awhile with what looks like bites taken out of them are from other old bee breeders who carry their extra queens around in their mouths? But for sure queen bees normally do not sting people, and even many bee breeders have never been stung by a queen bee, but they can sting."


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## JBees

Thanx everyone for the info.
Gerald


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## aunt betty

"A queen bee can sting a skin bearing creature many times"
scource: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bee_sting

I've marked a few queens and have not been stung by one yet. Guy from the University of Illinois bee lab told me I could not be stung by a queen so I was fearless and started marking. I've grabbed them by their feet or wings and they could have easily stung me but did not. Been stung so many times this summer I can't count them all. It's not that bad, stings like the dickens for almost two full minutes, then I'm fine. 

I'd rather get stung by bees than bitten by skeeters. Bees don't kill me. West Nile..etc.


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