Bee's attacked our chickens today with dozens of stings each. Help!

[panner123]

You should remove any stinger as soon as possible The only bees that leave the stinger in a honeybee. When they sting the sac come out and they die. You said the hive has been around for some years, so you must know its location. Have a professional do this because it sound like some of the killer bees have come to nest. They can not only kill an animal, but a human as well. Good luck.

 

[VistaChicks]

Thanks for all your suggestions. Luckily the kids,hubby and I fled into the house when it started. Only one sting but lots of screaming from us all in the commotion. Still not sure what set the bee's off.

The stingers have been in hens faces for awhile now. 6 hen faces plus 1 turkey face. We couldn't even go outside for few hours after the incident as the bee's were still buzzing around. Now it's dark outside so it safe. We live in So. Calif. I don't think we could use a credit card to scape the stingers out as their faces are just covered in stingers. No free area. Even next to their eyes are covered. We'd be smashing stingers in just to get one out. Only way I see them coming out is with tweezers. I know they tell us humans not to do this. But i don't see another way.
I'm surprised they are even still alive at this point, I think some humans would have died with this many stings. One hen didn't make it till sunset already and I'm afraid of what I'll find in the morning. No one has ever heard of bee's going after chickens like this. We're just heartbroken. I've spoken via email with some bee experts and they all suspect Africanized bee's have taken over the honey bee hive. So tomorrow no kids, dogs etc are going back there until the bee exterminators come.
Some have suggested giving them benadryl. I do have some kids liquid around. But I'm hesitant as I don't now what dose to use for each of them. How much do you use? Not to mention I'm afraid to touch their faces and hurt them more by forcing the liquid down.
I want to help them but don't want to make it worse at the same time. Do I risk pulling the stingers out with tweezers and using a drop or two of benadryl? It's going to be a long night.......

 

[welasharon]

I would think the risk of the benadryl would be better than nearly sure death if they are as bad off as it seems. The person in the link I posted used some and it helped. I am just so sorry you have to deal with this. It is surely unusual.
sharon

 

[BigDaddy'sGurl]

Wow. This reminds me of an incident that happened to me a few years back: my now-husband, then boyfriend of a couple of months had come over for dinner and was in my house preparing the food. I went outside to check my rabbits in their hutch and kicked some brush away from the cage to get to some trash that had blown behind the hutch. Went back to looking at my bunnies and suddenly felt a sting. Looked down and my shirt was crawling with yellow jackets! I ran screaming and shedding clothing into the house where my stunned (fairly new) bf just watched as it all came off. And then, before I could be embarrassed or respond to his embarrassment/dawning hope upon seeing me topless for the first time (lol), I heard the screams. The bees had found my bunnies. And my bunnies were caged and couldn't run. Without a moment's pause, I raced back into the fray and jerked the poor rabbits out of the cages (there were two) and flew to the front porch. (the incident occurred near the back porch). By this time my dear bf had run out with me and was using a broom (?) to swat at bees and brush them from my back. He also brought a clean shirt. I had to go through those poor screaming bunnies hair picking out yellow jackets. i dosed them up on benadryl and they slept inside that night while my now-husband gassed the bees. True story. The rabbits survived for another two years before old age got them finally. But we still giggle over the shirtless bee rescue...I think I ended up with 15-17 stings and my bf ended up with 7-9. i HATE bees. Butterflies pollinate too...why bees??

Hope you all are doing okay from the incident...bees CAN kill small animals and people alike and I know that if I hadn't been able to get to my caged bunnies they would surely have died. They literally had 50+ bees embedded into their fur each...

With free range birds I imagine you were pretty helpless to rescue them...they would run from you and the bees and you would have just been injured worse by the bees and probably created more confusion and panic for the birds. I feel for you so much for having to just watch your pets be stung. The thought of my bunnies screams still haunts me...I didnt know rabbits could scream.

My thoughts are with you!

 

[Knock Kneed Hen]

Wow...that is horrible. I'm in So. Cal too....where are you? I imagine that they are africanized bees that attacked your chickens. How frightening!! I'm glad that you and your family are okay.

I just noticed that you're new here...

Duh..I don't have my brain in tonight....I see you're in Vista. Close to me...I'm in Julian.

 

[wildeflowers]

Yes, those bees must have been africanized. And established honeybee colony can be infiltrated by a small number of africanized bees. They kill the European queen and replace her with an africanized queen, then slowly the hive is replaced with all africanized bees. You absolutely must call a professional for removal, plus I believe it will be catalogued.

I would go ahead and give the birds a drop or two of Benadryl on their tongues. Certainly, it won't be the benadryl that kills them.

 

[Judy]

I second the above post.

I would give them the benadryl. It might save their life. Put it in a dropper alongside their beak and try to get them to pull it into their mouths. And get the stingers out, one way or another.

On dose -- benadryl is a pretty safe drug in people, let's hope it is in chickens, too. I'd just guess -- read the label, estimate their weight roughly, and dose them the way you would a human. If I didn't see swelling going down, I would repeat.

BTW, you can safely use Neosporin with pain reliever on chickens. What you can't use is the "caine" drugs such as benzocaine, cetacaine, etc. The "pain killer" in Neosporin is a completely different drug.

Good luck, and let us know.

 

[drumstick diva]

Yes, as others pointed you are supposed to scrape stingers out with a credit card or even fingernail. To use tweezers squeezes more of the venon(??) into the wound. As far as I know only honeybees lose the stinger in the victim and the bee dies. Yellow Jackets keep their weapon and can sting repeatedly. Betcha they are africanized. I think using ice cube to numb the stings might help especially if trying to remove them.

The poor babies are probably going into shock. Maybe a vet could have told you to inject something to counteract it. What a horrible, horrible thing to have happen, as if regular predators aren't enough. Thank goodness human folk hid in the house.

Think there was a video on youtube of someone destroying bees that have made a huge hive under their gas grill. They waited till dark threw a big tarp over the hive, set off a bug repellent bomb and took off. Later they found the area black with all the bees carcasses. Those were probably regular honey bees and they could have had some bee keepers come and get them. They weren't agressive the guy just wanted them gone.

 

[Mahonri]

Almost every bee hive in the US is now mixed with Africanized (AKA: Killer) Bees. Non africanized bees would not hurt your chickens.

Get rid of the hive or it could be you next.

Unless you can remove the stingers, you'll have more dead chickens in the morning.

So sorry for your loss.

 

[WillieBoy]

Glad you calledapro to help you out with that Hot hive..It would be dangerous for you to try to bag them with a large plastic bag.I have three hives of Italian honeybees and 36 chickens, never had a problem.Sometimes the honeybees will come in the coop for the protein in laying mash, but not often.
Honeybees don't have to be Africanized to be aggressive, just annoyed/angry enough, or bad genetics to attack.I've gotten stung up to 15 times at once by my bees for being to close to the hives when their in a bad mood.Some non-killer bee hives are just ...Hot...and beekeepers will requeen them for better genetics, a gentler bee..
Wise move to let a pro do the job,honeybees kill people in certain situations.Africanized are the most common in fatal attacks, but people have been stung to death by non-Africanized as well.
Sorry for you terrible experience...