My first sting! Now I really feel like a beekeeper.

Last night I decided to watch the girls for a while. They were doing some heavy bearding out by the front door--the bees hang together in big clumps that can look like a beard. I'm told that this is normal for the hot, humid weather we get here in the DC area. As usual, I was in shorts and tee shirt and barefoot, just begging to be stung. I opened the top lid and inner cover just a tiny bit to peek inside and see what they were doing and out zipped one girl who wasn't happy to be disturbed. Zap! Got me on the upper arm. I did as instructed and used my hive tool to scrape off the stinger with the venom sac attached. Meanwhile the bee was in my hair so I flipped her out and got a picture of her and her stinger (she was in the process of dying...so sad...they die after they successfully sting).