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

[shellz131]

wow is all I can say I would have been freaking out ..I absolutly loathe bees ...sudder

 

[Chicky Tocks]

Checking in for an update on your chickens.

I hope everyone is in a good light this morning and you're able to get out and tend to them. Take a couple of cans of knock down wasp spray with you!

 

[cgmccary]

So sorry about your birds. Honey would be good to put on the worst stings if nobody else has suggested it.

Contrary to popular belief, there is no Africanized bees in most of the wild bee populations in the U.S., thank goodness. In fact, there are fewer wild honeybees out there right now. We have no "Africanized" Honeybees in Alabama for instance-- none. There are some of the "Africanization" in the warmest states-- Florida especially (with Arkansas being an exception-- some Africanized Honeybees have made it through the Arkansas winters for the past 3 years).

I love honeybees. I keep two honeybee hives (an Italian/ Russian cross), and they are very gentle. From my two hives, I was stung a grand total of ONCE over the summer-- that is with me going in the hive every couple of weeks taking it apart -- bees crawling on my hands. I don't even wear special clothes except a vail over my face-- otherwise, I wear short sleeves, no gloves - and use my bare hands.

Some people even keep Africanzed honeybees in other countries (Brazil, Africa) for their honey SO they aren't usually THAT aggressive. There is even a chapter in one of my books on handling them & being more careful. Are you sure it was HONEYBEES & NOT Hornets or Paper Wasps or Yellow Jackets? Hornets live in a "hive" of sorts too. Wasps, Hornets & Yellow Jackets are very, very aggressive-- more aggressive than "Africanized Honeybees." Hornets have always been the ones that really go after you for just being close. Jus asking.

 

[crawfordmama]

Could you use a plastic knife rather than a credit card to get into the tight spaces between the stingers? I think you should most definitely attempt to scrape out as many as you can. Best of luck, and please keep us posted.

 

[Rammy]

Sorry to hear about your chickens but it does sound like they were attacked by africanized bees. One problem most people dont know is that , as stated in another post, they have found that normal honey bees are also showing more aggression towards percieved threats, whether its people or animals. As someone else stated, and scientists have speculated, that honey bees are mixing with african bees and cross breeding. Also, they have done tests to see how cold a african bee can stand and have shown that they will cluster to keep warm, which shows incredible intellengence. They fear, within a time span of 10 to 15 years, honey bees as we know them will be extinct and we will have a more agressive bee to deal with. Personally, I think they should ban importing species that are not indeginous<sp> to another country. This all started in South America. One day, some worker decided to remove the queen excluders that kept the queens in the hive, and now, we have bees migrating this way, further and further into our country, putting people and livestock at risk. You can get rid of the bees, but you better make sure its a qualified professional and tell them you think they are africanized for thier safety. Please be careful so you and your family arent the next victims.

P.S. I saw a story about all this on National Geographic or Discovery Channel on these bees and thats where I got my information.


Rammy

 

[centrarchid]

Do not worry about removing stingers. Most of venom injected within a few seconds. The longer term problem which has already passed is that it marks (with scent) target for other bees to go after.

Be carefull with pharmaceuticals developed for humans (mammals), the chicken (dinosaur) physiology might react very differently.

What ticked off bees? If Africanized, then question not so important.

 

[VistaChicks]

Just an update on our poor chickens that were attacked by bee's. We just placed them in their coop the first night not knowing who would survive.. They were all in shock, couldn't stand up, and since the stingers had already been in for several hours (as we had to wait until dark to rescue them) all the venom had been injected anyway. They were all breathing, slowly but not rasping for air. We didn't want to stress them out anymore then they already were. We figured they would feel most comfortable in the coop. Then the next morning we got up before dawn (before daylight and the bee's fly) and one by one pulled the hurts ones out. We gently pulled the stingers out of their faces. Up to 50 stingers in some. Their poor eyes lids were even covered. We helped them all drink water from a small cup and then put neosporin all over their faces. We then put them in a smaller pen we made up in our garage with the brooding lamp in one corner, in case they were cold from the shock. They couldn't see as their eyes were so swollen and weren't moving much. We were afraid that back in their run & coop the healthy ones could pester/pick at them. So we felt the smaller enclosure would be comforting with water/food very close by, unlike the big run.

The exterminators came out that day (Monday) and destroyed the hive. Even with cooler temps and rainy weather that day they said the hive was very aggressive and they were glad it wasn't sunny. Now in a few days we need to have them come back to remove the dead hive/honey and clean up all the smell so new bees aren't attracted to it. Our English Mastiff Dog survived her one sting with no issues. However my hubby (who was the only human to get a sting) had to go to the MD today. The sting was in his wrist area, but his whole hand and forearm swelled up, became very hard not puffy and was hot to the touch. He's been stung before in life and not allergic. So he's on antibiotics and we're watching it closely.

So now we are two days post tragedy and amazingly the 5 hens plus turkey are all hanging in there. The Turkey has recovered the fastest. We had noticed his bumpy skin shed the stingers mostly on it's own. Maybe they didn't go deep in the first place. And his eyes weren't hit like the others. Although he was really sick the first night so some venom got in there. He slept most of yesterday but today he was eating/drinking on his own with eyes wide open. This evening I put him back in the coop with the healthy hens as I don't want him stepping all over the still sick hens in the garage. Our now lone Barred Rock hen (other one was killed by the bees) is late today eating and drinking on her own. She has one eye open and the other still closed. She's still very mellow and tired. In a few days if she keeps this up she may be ready to go back to the run/coop.

Our white Silkie has both eyes swollen shut, but will drink when you hold the cup to her beak. The 3 Americana's also still have their eyes swollen shut but are drinking as well when we hold the cup for them. We hand water them about 6x a day right now. None of them will eat yet. We've tried hand feeding and even tried live meal worms today but they just turn away at food. We have vitamins in their water and some antibiotics we got from our local feed store. We just don't want any infection to set in and since we raise them on organic feed it doesn't have antibiotics mixed in. They are tired and don't move around much, but still hanging in there. Tomorrow morning we plan on washing their faces with warm water to help clean out their eyes. I just want to make sure that any gunk in there is not gluing their eyes shut.

So we are optimistic that they might make it thru all this. We're also curious if any of them will be blind or if their sight will come back once they can open their eyes. Time will tell. I feel so bad for them. They are such mellow, peaceful and beautiful hens. And they didn't do anything to deserve this. We've been so careful to protect them from coyote's, hawks & raccoons all of which we have here. But we never dreamed the bee's would hurt them.

Thanks to you all for you support and help. We'll keep you posted as time goes on.

Beth

 

[Qi Chicken]

Good luck to you. What a weird thing. I wonder if your state vet would like to take a look at those bees (even dead) With their strange behaviour and your husbands unusual reaction to the bite it kind of makes you wonder what the heck is up with them. As you probably knows bees are having their troubles right now.

 

[schmije]

I hope your chickens continue to improve. I've been following your story since your original post, and I can't imagine what you and your flock have been through. We have a hive of bees, and the thought of something like this happening is terrifying to me. Did you try giving them Bedadryl, as some people suggested? I wouldn't have thought to give it to chickens, but it makes sense.

Please keep us updated on their progress. They're lucky to have you taking such good care of them.

 

[KKatknap]

I can't imagine the horror of having to watch that. My eyes teared up reading your post. You've done a very good job in the aftermath of this. Please keep us posted on how the rest bounce back.