Do you keep your suit immaculately clean at all times?

[user 20297]

I rarely maintain a respectable appearance for much longer than the first few minutes of preparing breakfast. So faced with the physical, outdoor challenge of beekeeping. my white suit does not stay that way for very long.

Most of the UK beekeeping videos I see show people wearing impeccably clean bee-wear. I am aware that I should try to keep things clean in order to avoid disease transmission between colonies and to reduce the chances of substances adhering to my bee-suit causing negative reactions from the bees.

But there's no way I'm going to wash the suit after each use or even weekly; it's not the best quality and is very bulky and I supect that it would suffer premature wear if I did so. This means that I have a very grubby appearance, with green-stained knees and a grey band of muck around my middle.

Am I on my own with this, does everyone else keep their suit clean at all times?

 

[pargyle]

If I am using mine in the same apiary and it's not covered in honey or propolis and my bees have not been stinging then I won't wash it ... if it's mucky ... I wash it. Most of the time it's just a jacket and it's an Old Castle Farm ventilated suit - it takes longer to take the veil off and put it back on than it takes to dry so no big deal.

 

[Erichalfbee]

Wash when dirty, have BB Wear and Sheriff and they wash and dry in a trice. Propolis is confined to gloves anyway so don’t have to do it too often. These last few weeks suit has been wringing wet in sweat though so washed without being dirty

 

[Wilco]

I have a khaki one rather than white for that reason! Tend to wash most weeks to play it safe as I've got sites spread over a few areas and often spend a day sweating in it but last year I mostly used just a white smock and think I still haven't washed that... Definitely wash if any stings.

 

[ericbeaumont]

there's no way I'm going to wash the suit after each use or even weekly

Mine get washed in rotation every day in washing soda and magnesium pellets (no scent) but then I wear them all day every day and aim to reduce the risk of cross-contamination.

Boots and gloves get washed daily; plastic bootliner in the Volvo gets washed weekly.

 

[madasafish]

I have a khaki coloured jacket so it only show the worst dirt.
So washed approx 3-4 times a year . Except after the rare session when I end up soaking in sweat. Then I smell like cat's pee - 1> so wash the jacket.

1> so I am informed!

 

[oliver90owner]

If it gets any sting(s) embedded (or not but bee venom on it), do not store it in your home. There is a chance of becoming allergic to bee stings. I suspect my wife succumbed by that means. She got multiple stings at one stage with little ill effect, but one sting several years later hospitalised her under a blue light.

 

[REDWOOD]

nearly every time I've been beekeeping I'll wash my suit, its looking pitiful at the moment, had two zips replaced and a hole in the vail repaired, not bad for a ten year old suit, might invest in a new one next year

 

[Worker bee]

Don't have time to wash it regular but you reminded me so it's in the wash now for first time this season. I'll have to start throwing it in the wash basket for the wife to do

 

[E&MBees]

After having an EFB alert back at the start of the season and reading on here the challenges that some folks have faced, I wash my suit after every inspection. It drys quickly and I know that I have done everything possible to maintain high standards of hygiene.

 

[Curly green finger's]

I have three suites one for work and two for home.
Work suite is washed most weeks at work because of sweating and boots/gloves are left there and only used there. home suites as I have two, if one gets stung I use the other one and have to wait an age to get it washed mainly because I have 6 children and one on the way.
All gloves marigolds I hand wash and or replace with new when needed.
I have a few pairs that are fingerless or finger tips missing but some how I find a pair in the glove bag...
All gloves I swill in a soda solution between hives.

When we had that warm weather I got up to apiary 5 (work) and almost passed out halfway through an inspection I had to strip of down to my pants and sit infront of the landy for half hour drinking copious amounts of water in the shade.
Thankfully the girls were more interested in foraging because that could of been a bit of a situation... I was also lucky it's isolated and no folk around, I did think about jumping in the pool/lake up there which looked inviting .

 

[Worker bee]

My suit looks a lot better now Where's the cat walk cos I'm too sexy for my

 

[Curly green finger's]

My suit looks a lot better now Where's the cat walk cos I'm too sexy for my

I'm a beekeeper you know what I mean and I shake my little toosh in the apiary, in the apiary, in the apiary yeah!!

 

[ericbeaumont]

sit infront of the landy

Series?

 

[Michael Palmer]

I haven't got a suit so I'm not bothered by this sort of thing.

 

[Curly green finger's]

Series?

Longwheel base 53 plate the same one I blew up early on in the season, which got a new engine.
The same one I drove to Wales to collect all those nucs.

 

[ericbeaumont]

53 plate

One Ten, then.

 

[North End Bees]

Don't have time to wash it regular but you reminded me so it's in the wash now for first time this season. I'll have to start throwing it in the wash basket for the wife to do

Good way for her to develop allergy if she doesn't usually have anything else to do with the bees.
Wash it yourself

 

[Patrick1]

I appreciate beekeepers have a problem with suits and cleanliness around the hives, some of the issues discussed are valid, particularly around sting venom, if it’s in the suit you need to wash it, the bees will come back to the venom area next time you visit and thus set up what you will think is a nasty hive, then its perpetual.
Gloves are the bigger problem in particular leather ones, possibly the worst piece of equipment ever, if you need to ware leather gloves something needs to change, either beekeepers skill or your bees. After all you would not go into a kitchen to serve up food with your gardening gloves on would you. Peter don’t answer this

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

One Ten, then.

no - defender - different again