A chronicler’s first to be replaced — his charges can be stinging (8)
I believe the answer is:
apiarist
'his charges can be stinging' is the definition.
(an apiarist's charges are bees)
'a chronicler's first to be replaced' is the wordplay.
I cannot quite understand how this works, but
'a' is present in the answer.
'first' could be 'ist' and 'ist' is present in the answer.
This may be the basis of clue (or it may be nonsense).
(Other definitions for apiarist that I've seen before include "gets a buzz out of his work" , "Who keeps workers" , "He has hives" , "Beekeeper" , "A keeper of bees" .)