Wow!
How was your ability to speak immediately after being stung?

@AnonySchmoose so long ago, I don't remember. I knew it hurt like hell. Maybe minor, had swollen hand a few days.

Glad to hear keeping honey bees doesn't mean they sting you more often. Do native bees have enough areas with flowers to pollinate where you are?

@AnonySchmoose That's a very good question--one that I wonder about myself. I am aware that my non-native honey bees must be competing with the local native pollinators, but I don't really know how much stress they put on the system. Partly to allay my guilt a bit, I built a pollinator house to help the natives out. I can say that I see plenty of non-honey bees pollinating my fruit trees and blueberries, I maintain a small section of my yard as a meadow, and my "lawn" is full of things like clover, gill-over-the-ground, and other small forbs that should have pretty wide appeal to pollinators (though most of those plants are probably exotics themselves). I guess I figure that honey bees have been here for hundreds of insect generations, and the natives have probably had time to adjust to their presence. But really, I don't know.

Are there concerns about honey bee/native bee competition in Hawaii?

@Behind-the-dog
Very cute pollinator house!
I think you are doing a good thing.

"Are there concerns about honey bee/native bee competition in Hawaii?"

These articles say there are both positive and negative concerns:

Positive and Negative Impacts of Non-Native Bee Species around the World
[ncbi.nlm.nih.gov]

Native Bees – What Hawaii and Darwin Can Teach Us!
[adaksoftware.com]

Hawaii's Native Bees - Nalo Meli Maoli
[ctahr.hawaii.edu]

@AnonySchmoose Thank you! That first one, in particular, should keep me busy a while, and perhaps start to fill in some of the gaping holes in my knowledge for here in Massachusetts.

Sorry, Charlene, that sounds agonizing.
I hope it didn't continue a long time.
Has a poisonous creature caused you pain?

@AnonySchmoose bee string hurt and can kill me, does that count?

@Charlene
A deadly bee sting definitely does count for you much more than for the non-allergic who get stung.

@AnonySchmoose Weird factoid, human tolerance to bee venom actually Decreases with each subsequent sting..

@Charlene
Does that mean each subsequent sting at the same time, or at different times, or both? That IS alarming!

@AnonySchmoose at different times..

There aren't many creatures that cause pain here.
Centipedes, scorpions, bees, wasps are the only ones I know.
I've never been stung by a bee, wasp or a scorpion.
Centipedes Bites are very painful - more so depending on size.
There are a few very big ones . . . as much as a foot.
They can kill a human. However, not all centipede species bite.
[buzzfeednews.com]

@AnonySchmoose You live in paradise. You've gotta take the good with the bad.