I fear that I have to admit that I have a couple of hives of bitches.
Bitch = equals “Bees In Total Control of Hive”
I started with the thin latex type gloves From Princess Auto, the typical 50 pair for 10 bucks and I would occasionally get stung through the gloves. As you can well imagine every time I need to buy gloves I buy thicker gloves for the simple reason I don’t enjoy being stung. Being stung does not cause me any concern but it does cause me some discomfort, especially the itchiness. The itchiness for two or three days has to be the worst. I recently bought 11 Mil latex gloves $21/$22 for 25 pair which feel like my wife’s dishwashing gloves or something that I would use with a very strong acid and to my disappointment/chagrin the gloves are inadequate to the task. The worst part is I got stung on the tip of one of my most loved/used fingers, let us just say it would be less than polite to show my finger to you where I’ve been stung.
The last nine or 10 times I’ve been stung has been through suits and/or gloves, which makes me wonder why bother suiting up at all.
So my question is “is there anything that those BITCH’s can’t sting through”? I'm not sure armor plating would help this point.
A few stings now and then are a good thing. Without occasional stings, beekeepers and their families can become allergic and I have seen it happen to a person working with bees who ignored my advice to get stung from time to time.
If you work with bees or are in a beekeeping household, get stung occasionally.
I typically get stung a few times when I work with bees. Most of those are minor nicks from accidental pinches.
If you get stung a lot, then it is either your technique or the bees. Out of every one hundred hives, there is always at least one that demonstrates greater defensiveness than the others. It could be just circumstances, like skunks or ants tormenting them, or they could just be nasty by nature.
Keeping cross bees near residences is not a good idea and re-queening is in order, regardless of any other good traits.
BTW, I seldom wear gloves. I had to wear disposable gloves when inspecting -- those were the rules -- and they have their good points, but they also make a person clumsy and insensitive. In my experience, the best beekeepers only wear gloves when the bees are testy.
I hope the stinging hive is not one you got from me.
All fair points. It is not that the entire hive is defensive there's only a few girls in each hive that seem to take exception to me. I seem to get stung in the same areas all the time for example I take one in the nose seemingly every year and I get it in the hands a half-dozen times a year. The occasions where I get stung somewhere else is no big deal except for the itching. Wearing leather gloves doesn't seem to be an answer because of the amount of feeling you would lose. The 11 mil gloves make it hard to feel and I'm sure they are way better than leather.
To your point I did read an article a couple years back that family members of beekeepers are 10 times more likely to become allergic to bee stings if they are never stung. They were speculating about keeping the suits in the house was the cause.
I think I'll use a bit more smoke and give them an extra minute or two after smoking them and maybe try to improve my technique. I don't believe they are hot enough to re-Queen at this point. I have quit feeding them because a good flow should be starting soon so they might be a little cranky.
