Thanks all. I'm not really worried about why I got stung. I am more musing on building up the mental fortitude to not react instinctively when it happens.
Okay, I have no idea if this will help you, but I'll take a stab anyway. I constantly talk to my bees while I'm working them, and really any time I'm up at the hives. I never really thought about why I do it before, but your question got me contemplating it. I think that it helps to keep me calm by sort of humanizing them. Because the fact is, they aren't just rabid, violent creatures that are looking to sting you for fun. If you think about it from their perspective, you totally deserve it.
I mean how would you feel, if you are really busy working in your house, and some giant thing rips off the roof and is screwing around with all the stuff you are trying to organize and take care of? I think it's easier to not panic when you remember that they are stinging you reasonably, and not unreasonably. (And if it is unreasonable, you should probably requeen.) And I think that humanizing them, by talking to them, helps you to remember they are reasonable.
I don't know, but I also think that talking to them may help them too. I feel like by talking to them, I'm making them aware that I'm not a predator, and it's sort of an association tactic by which they can identify me and what I'm here to do when I inspect, which is really just look around; I'm not here to destroy their nest (most days
). This is pure speculation on my part, but we've talked on the forum before about the fact that bees seem to be able to identify their keepers, and can recognize when someone new is working them. I remember reading a story somewhere about a guy who took over some hives that had been owned by a Russian beekeeper, who always spoke to the bees in Russian. The new keeper thought that the bees were more aggressive toward him because he didn't sound like their original keeper.
Maybe that's more the sort of thing you are after?
