Yesterday I went out to harvest my second hive. I couldn't find my bee gloves, probably because I only use them for harvesting and hiving new packages. I settled on a pair of my winter gloves.
When I picked up the first frame the bees landed on the gloves and immediately became agitated and many more started attacking. I had to quit harvesting and go find a different pair of gloves. The first pair was a fuzzy synthetic material and looking back my guess is that the bees got tangled and started letting off distress pheromones which started a stinging attack which let off more pheromones and really got them stirred up.
I was able to find a pair of leather gloves to change into. I smoked these gloves and had no further problems.
One sting got through the right glove. I barely felt it and the swelling is mostly gone. Lesson learned.
Bees don't like any fuzzy material, black wooly socks, polarfleece jumpers. It would be interesting to see what fuzzy looks like through bee eyes.
Let that be a lesson to ya to keep yer bear-paws out of the hives!
That's why I love my thick nitrile gloves. Thickest mil I can find. They give you more dexterity and the bees can't sting thru them.
John
John, what kind of gloves do you get and where do you find them? Are they hot to work in?
Duraflock gloves get size larger. If you wear med get large they are flocked lined so they don't sweat as bad.
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0065R58AE/ref=pd_lpo_sbs_dp_ss_1/152-0250755-6456420?pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_s=lpo-top-stripe-1&pf_rd_r=889ENRZEQBRN43MKJP4R&pf_rd_t=201&pf_rd_p=1944687442&pf_rd_i=B004QXS4MI
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Any gloves are hot when the temp gets up.
With quiet bees you don't need gloves, most of the stings on your hands are usually your fault where you have touched or pressured a bee.
Very few bee keepers in Oz that I have met wear gloves.
If bees are attacking your hands then I would be looking to change queens for a quieter bee to work with.
I helped/oversaw a beek harvesting his first honey Saturday. He wore some yellow fuzzy looking gloves, I didn't wear any. They tore his hands up so bad he had to walk away.
Quote from: divemaster1963 on August 22, 2016, 12:14:50 AM
Duraflock gloves get size larger. If you wear med get large they are flocked lined so they don't sweat as bad.
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0065R58AE/ref=pd_lpo_sbs_dp_ss_1/152-0250755-6456420?pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_s=lpo-top-stripe-1&pf_rd_r=889ENRZEQBRN43MKJP4R&pf_rd_t=201&pf_rd_p=1944687442&pf_rd_i=B004QXS4MI
[attachment=0][/attachment]
I Purchased some of these after I saw your post on the cut out thread. I really don't see the flocking as a plus and I will look for some thin cloth liners to go inside. I know they make thin cloth liners the thickness of a t-shirt or thinner. After reading your post on size I found some XXL as I have large hands, XL may have been sufficient as the fingers on the xxl are a little long. And your tip on rinsing them and using them over again was spot on so it negates the initial cost.
The XXL came from tool topia:
http://www.tooltopia.com/microflex-dfk-608-xxl.aspx
Oh yeas thanks for the lead I do love the gloves. Folks if you are looking for good protection and dexterity try these gloves. I used to be gloveless because I hated bee gloves. Not any more..
I could probably work my bees without gloves but have not got that brave yet. I still wear my leather gloves but the last couple of inspections I have done I am not even sure a bee has landed on me at all.
bwallace, use slow movement, don't crush bees, nor make loud noises like with the inner cover coming off.
All my hives are feral genetics. I'm use to the genetics of bees from fourty years ago. Then they were defensive of hive . I prefer them . yes if I'm just pulling frames from top box I can do it with no gloves. But having the nthick nitrile gloves on if I see something that makes me need to go deeper I don't have to stop and reset my self to do that. The flocking n the inside is great because it allows for removal and reapplying like regular gloves . it also allows a air space between hands and glove to cut down on sweating plus that little extra space helps in reducing the chance of stings.
John
Where do you buy those gloves Divemaster?
Quote from: GSF on August 22, 2016, 11:57:06 AM
bwallace, use slow movement, don't crush bees, nor make loud noises like with the inner cover coming off.
Do bees hear? I wonder about the queens piping. Does the other queen actually hear the piping, or just feel the vibration?
Check the site I linked to. They sold online everywhere. I get mine from my snap-on tool guy. Just because he keeps them in stock for me. I use them at work to. It cost me a little more but it's a convince charge.
Even Walmart sells them ( seen online but have not seen them at my local one).
John
Quote from: Dallasbeek on August 22, 2016, 02:21:26 PM
Quote from: GSF on August 22, 2016, 11:57:06 AM
bwallace, use slow movement, don't crush bees, nor make loud noises like with the inner cover coming off.
Do bees hear? I wonder about the queens piping. Does the other queen actually hear the piping, or just feel the vibration?
Honeybees don't have ears. They can do something like hear though organs in legs. But I would determine that as felling the vibrations of the sounds as it bounces off of objects . so technically no but possibly yes. Open to all interpretation.
John
Kinda what I thought. :cool:
I have written on this before and told about Harbor Freight 9mm gloves they work but you will still get stung if the bee gets a good straight in sting, I like to use these gloves most of the time. When I need more protection I use the heavy flocked gloves they are clumsy and develop a des"stincky" smell. "Uline have 12mm unlined gloves I am going to try soon. Unlined gloves are either disposable or easily turned inside out washed and dried. Paus
Quote from: divemaster1963 on August 22, 2016, 02:00:31 PM
All my hives are feral genetics. I'm use to the genetics of bees from fourty years ago. Then they were defensive of hive . I prefer them . yes if I'm just pulling frames from top box I can do it with no gloves. But having the nthick nitrile gloves on if I see something that makes me need to go deeper I don't have to stop and reset my self to do that. The flocking n the inside is great because it allows for removal and reapplying like regular gloves . it also allows a air space between hands and glove to cut down on sweating plus that little extra space helps in reducing the chance of stings.
John
I have gone gloveless for years. But I am the lucky beekeeper that bees love to chew on and stay in my face. Body chemical I guess. Also big hands and I take quite a few stings on the hands. Not that they hurt that much but occasionally I get one hotter than others. Worked hives with them about 4 times so far and have only received one sting through them.
Divemaster... I see your point on the flocking allowing them to come on and off for reuse now. Never thought of that. But still full of sweat after first use anyway. A light liner would help that. The kind some jewelry stores are gun shops use to handle items.
I have worn standard latex for 30 years but we always wear a liner to absorb sweat. Again thanks for the lead on the gloves they are worth the effort to run down and find.
If you aren't wearing gloves, when the bees start to get a bit upset you will feel them collide with you hands but not sting you.
When you feel this just give them a bit more smoke and they will settle down.
GSF is right, don't rush etc, I even talk to them, don't know if it makes any difference, but the first time or so you leave the gloves off you are nervous expecting a sting, the calmer you are, so are the bees.
I opened about 12 hives the other day, checking brood and queens, no gloves, no stings.
Quote from: Oldbeavo on August 25, 2016, 07:26:07 PM
I even talk to them, don't know if it makes any difference
Oh so do I , all the time, sometimes more than others, but I am not sure the content is suitabvle for a family forum... :wink:
Well smoked hands and I haven't needed gloves yet! Although I've had to shut things up and walk away but that's just honey bees.
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I haven't read the entire thread so forgive me if someone said this already but I don't use gloves. Smoke the crap out of your hands and they won't bother you as long as you don't squish them. Without gloves it is easier to feel them so you don't squish them.
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Copped a sting to the thumb joint yesterday through the blue disposal vinyl type gloves (nitrile). Had squashed her legs by accident when holding the frame, shifted my grip to release her and the thanks I got was getting to watch her crawl up my thumb, position her abdomen, and sting me. Wanted to stop her but had a frame in my hands. Right hand is like a softball today and I can't bend my fingers.. sometimes I wish I just stuck to leather gloves!
We're they the disposable gloves? They are to thin. Get the ones that are at least 6mil thick.
John
Philk
You just need to get a few more so your system gets used to them. 4 or 5 a day and you won't even puff, though one very potent bee has given my wrist a little puff today. Would have had 8 or 10 on my hands today splitting hives on a day that wasn't quite warm enough.
Be interesting to know why one sting has produced a little puff when none of the others can be found????
Well you never know when the bees will sting you!I am in process of building a Solevian Bee hive House and it is about 20 foot in front of my hives.Haven't started hammering as yet but was working on getting the foundation block all squared up and level ready for the wood work.Been working on it late in the evening since it is so hot and I am not supposed to be in the sun .Any way out of the blue one bees decides I need to be stung so she hit me on the nose!I hope that is a very rare thing as I hate to have to wear a suit while working.To much trouble to move 10 hives AND DON'T HAVE ANY PLACE TO MOVE THEM TO!
In the last 3 days, I have taken at least 20' stings to my hands. We have been removing honey and a few of the hives were pretty upset. None of them swelled up or were even sore to the touch. Today I found one girl under the lid of a bucket while extracting in the house and she got the pad of my left ring finger. That finger is swelled up a bit. There is no rhyme or reason to it.
Jim
Just a blast from the past. I served in an AIRBORNE unit in Alaska and we had a strange type of gloves for everyday stuff. It was a felt type of glove that worked pretty well BUT when it got to 0 or below we had leather shells that fit over them. The sizes were corresponding so it was not a crushing kind of tight. As for their use with bees I go back to something an old prospector told me about rattlers. Before Kevlar "gaithers" (leggings) he would put paper mache around his legs. He claimed that a rattler could not penetrate the depth and it was light enough to wear for extended periods of time. Sooooo, I'm thinking about the winter gloves I had "back in the day". I might have to work slower but being retired gives me all the time I need. I REALLY don't want to get stung.
Quote from: Oldbeavo on September 05, 2016, 08:47:33 AM
Philk
You just need to get a few more so your system gets used to them. 4 or 5 a day and you won't even puff, though one very potent bee has given my wrist a little puff today. Would have had 8 or 10 on my hands today splitting hives on a day that wasn't quite warm enough.
Be interesting to know why one sting has produced a little puff when none of the others can be found????
No thanks mate! The discomfort is not worth it I reckon. I'm a vet in my day job, and let me just tell you it was lucky that yesterday was a quiet day with no surgery or I would have been stuffed.
Hand is not painful or throbbing today, swelling come down a little bit, and can almost close all my fingers so I am happy with that at least. Managed to do surgery without too much discomfort!
I'm also worried that this could mean I have a bee allergy, as previous stings have puffed up but not as much.. what if it keeps getting worse with every sting and I end up in an ambulance one day
Working outside in -10 F in the panhandle of Nebraska, I learned to wear "Choppers". They were wool mittens with leather mittens over them. I wore cheap jersey gloves under that with the thumb and first two fingers cut out. That way if I had to have fingers to accomplish something most of my hand would stay warm. With the mittens on they stayed warm and the leather gave you a grip so you could swing a hammer and blocked the wind from blowing through the wool knit mittens. But for bees all I want or need is thin leather. Once in a great while the bees will find a seam or work a stinger in far enough that it hits my skin. But they don't really sting through them. I just buy roping gloves and tuck them into my sleeves on my jacket.
I love the roping gloves . I would use them in a heartbeat. There just no where around here to get them. I like to try them on first to get the best fit.
John
I buy them at the local hardware store, but then we still have cowboys around here...
Quote from: divemaster1963 on September 06, 2016, 11:34:52 AM
I love the roping gloves . I would use them in a heartbeat. There just no where around here to get them. I like to try them on first to get the best fit.
John
Check for a Tractor Supply Store anywhere near or order them on the web.
Quote from: Michael Bush on September 06, 2016, 01:35:37 PM
I buy them at the local hardware store, but then we still have cowboys around here...
Lots of cows. ( milk). No boys. :tongue:
John.
I forgot about tractor supply. We have on across town. About fourty miles.