I am Now an Oficial Beekeeper

You may be wondering why I am saying this. I didn't get my regestration number yet or harvest honey. I'm saying this because I've finnaly experienced the pain of the honeybee's stinger. Today wasn't the best day for inspection; rained earlier and was cloudy, but I wanted to see what my girls were up to. They were a little cranky today because of the weather and the second I opened the hive it started thundering. I was already half way through the inspection so I thought I'd be able to finish in a few minutes. Just then I lift a frame and...BAM...I got a sting right at the end of my thumb nail. At first I saw it and didn't feel anything then, it felt like it was a nail drilling into my skin. I looked closely and could see that it was still moving and pulling its self in even further. I popped it off with my hive tool and after that the pain just became more intense. I smoked my thumb to cover the alarm pharamone and kept working. After that I didn't get another sting but I think I'll think twice befor working the bees without gloves. Isn't it ironic though that I never had a single sting on my gloves and the first time I take them off I get stung. Anyways, I didn't see the queen and to be honest, wasn't looking to hard for her. I just wanted to make sure that the hive was in good health
then, close up shop.

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I finally got a chance to super them, as you can see in the photo. If you're wondeing what super means that is to add another box on for the bees to make their colony larger. Right now my thumb is kind of swollen so it's a little hard to type. In the other photos you can see liquid, gold, honey in the making and the bee with its head in the cell is actually regurgitating nectar so it will ferment and predigest. In the last picture you can see some brood cappings and if you look carefully you can see some bees comming out of their cells. You can also see some very young bees that just emerged from their cells and have a soft, downy appearance and also a little matted. Untill the next inspection I'll be resting my thumb.

P.S. If you click on the photos you can see them in a larger size.