Why Do Our Beekeepers Sting Themselves on Purpose?
Every beekeeper gets stung. It comes with the job. But at many apiaries, including Champlain Valley, some of our employees take it a step further, reaching for a bee on purpose.
We touched on apitherapy and our founder Charles Mraz's history with it in an earlier post. This time we wanted to get into what that practice actually looks like day to day for the people who keep it going at CVA now.
When people picture apitherapy, they often picture a formal treatment room with a practitioner and a chart of pressure points. That's not really what's happening in our beeyards. For our team, self-stinging is more of a habit picked up over years of working alongside bees, something closer to how someone might reach for a heating pad or a topical rub.
A beekeeper might notice stiffness in a knuckle or a knee, catch a bee with a hive tool or gloved hand, and let it sting the sore spot before getting back to work. There's no ceremony to it. It's practical, it's quick, and it's built entirely on their own comfort and experience with bee venom, since years of regular stings mean their bodies react very differently than someone trying it for the first time.
What It's Used For:
Around the apiary, our beekeepers have reached for a sting to deal with things like:
- Sore joints and muscles after heavy lifting
- Stiffness that shows up after a cold Vermont morning in the beeyard
- Minor skin irritation, including flare-ups of psoriasis
- The occasional head cold or sinus pressure
We want to be upfront that this is anecdotal. It's based on what our own beekeepers have noticed in their own bodies over time, not on a clinical study, and it's not something we're recommending as treatment. It's simply part of the culture of working this closely with honeybees for decades.
Why Experience Matters
The biggest difference between what our beekeepers do and what a first-timer might try is exposure. Someone who's been stung hundreds or thousands of times over a beekeeping career has a very different relationship with bee venom than someone encountering it for the first time. Reactions to venom can also change over a lifetime, so even our own team stays alert to how their bodies respond and adjusts accordingly.
This is also exactly why we stopped offering BVT sessions to the public. What works as a personal habit for an experienced beekeeper isn't something we can responsibly extend to visitors or customers, since the risk of a serious allergic reaction is real and shouldn't be underestimated.
The Bigger Picture
Self-stinging is a small, personal piece of a much bigger relationship our beekeepers have with their hives. It's less about chasing a cure and more about the years of trust built between a beekeeper and their bees, trust that started long before Charlie Mraz wrote a book about it and continues every season out in our yards.
If you want to read more about where this practice came from, check out our earlier post on Charles Mraz and the history of bee venom therapy at CVA. And if a bee ever does happen to sting you at the apiary, don't worry, that's just part of the job around here too.
