Suits, veils and gloves

Buy a veil you trust completely and then decide how much else you want between you and the bees.

What you actually need

A veil, something to keep bees out of your sleeves and cuffs, and closed shoes. Everything beyond that is comfort and confidence, both of which are real considerations and neither of which is safety in the way a veil is.

Full suits are hot. In July that is not a minor complaint: overheating makes people rush, and rushing makes them clumsy around frames. A jacket-and-veil with ordinary trousers is what a lot of experienced keepers wear most of the season, and they put the full suit on when they know a colony is difficult.

The veil is not optional

A sting on the hand is a nuisance. A sting near the eye is a medical problem, and bees go for the face because they target dark, exhaled carbon dioxide. This is the one piece where you should not economize or improvise.

Round veils with a helmet keep the mesh well away from your face. Fencing veils are cooler and pack smaller but sit closer, so a bee on the mesh is closer to you than it looks. Either works. A veil that touches your skin anywhere does not.

Gloves cost you dexterity

Thick leather gloves make you slow and clumsy, and clumsy is how you roll a bee between frames, which is how you get a defensive colony and sometimes a dead queen. Many keepers move to nitrile gloves, which give almost no protection from stings but let you feel what you are doing, and some work bare-handed.

Say the inconvenient part plainly: gloves are the piece most likely to make you worse at the job while making you feel safer. Start with them if you need them to stay calm, and expect to want less glove over time rather than more.

Fit matters more than brand

Bees find gaps. Ankles, wrists, the zip where a hood meets a jacket, and the gap that opens at your lower back when you bend over a hive. Elastic at every opening and a suit slightly too large beats a well-known label that fits closely, because a suit pulled tight against your skin is a suit bees can sting through.

Light colors, and wash it. Alarm pheromone lingers in fabric, and a suit that smells of last week's difficult inspection will make this week's harder.

References