First bare hand manipulation

[sean-a]

I ditched the kid gloves today for the first time.
Decided to try with bare hands.....
Felt a lot more sensitive dealing with the frames, and I was a lot more deliberate and slow moving.
But....best of all.....no stings!!

Three hives and no stings. )

 

[john t]

i totally agree if you use thick gloves you dont get the feel
glove less makes you think more about your hand movements across the frames ensuring they are deliberate and slow, and especially when picking up queens, also if the bees are stingers, makes me think about requeening,

i use disposable nitrile gloves with long cuffs, keeps propolis off your hands and are less prone to transfer disease and although you can still get stung its very faint

 

[mickbees23]

I don't use gloves most of the time. Propolis can be a problem if marking or clipping queens then I use nitrile gloves, and they also keep your scent off the queen.

I stopped wearing gloves because when I did get stung my hands swelled up a lot and I am a mechanic and it was a problem working Monday morning. Now I am a lot more desensitised after getting used to a sting or 2 and I only get a small reaction and sometimes don't even feel the sting and just notice a warm spot when I get home. Its very rare for the bees to just attack and sting, its usually because I trapped a bee on the side bar with my hand.

No gloves really does improve your handling of the frames and you can feel a bee on your hand before you squash it most times and it stings as a reaction to that, and who want's to own bees that you need gloves for anyway ?

I inspected 15 colonies on Saturday and not one sting, thank god...LOL

Cheers, Mike.

 

[john t]

No gloves really does improve your handling of the frames and you can feel a bee on your hand before you squash it most times and it stings as a reaction to that, and who want's to own bees that you need gloves for anyway ?

.

Mike i totally agree, although i have had colony's who were just plain nasty and would attack as soon as i approached , and several layers of gloves were needed, those types were quickly re-queened

 

[Machonachos]

i totally agree if you use thick gloves you dont get the feel
glove less makes you think more about your hand movements across the frames ensuring they are deliberate and slow, and especially when picking up queens, also if the bees are stingers, makes me think about requeening,

i use disposable nitrile gloves with long cuffs, keeps propolis off your hands and are less prone to transfer disease and although you can still get stung its very faint

Where do you get the long cuff nitriles? Have looked everywhere for them

 

[Erichalfbee]

Where do you get the long cuff nitriles? Have looked everywhere for them

https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/aw/d/B0...ile+gloves&dpPl=1&dpID=41YKcUsGvjL&ref=plSrch

Just Gloves do them cheaper but there is postage on top.

 

[Machonachos]

https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/aw/d/B0...ile+gloves&dpPl=1&dpID=41YKcUsGvjL&ref=plSrch

Just Gloves do them cheaper but there is postage on top.

Fantastic. Just ordered them.

Thanks

 

[madasafish]

I ditched the kid gloves today for the first time.
Decided to try with bare hands.....
Felt a lot more sensitive dealing with the frames, and I was a lot more deliberate and slow moving.
But....best of all.....no stings!!

Three hives and no stings. )

Well done.
I find it makes me much more sensitive to the bees and more deliberate in my handling.
Avon Skin So Soft Original on the hands helps if you have the odd excitable colony. But I always carry vinyls and marigolds for the odd attack. I draw the line at around 5 stings and then glove up with vinyls.


You will occasionally get stung a lot (10+)...The upside is your body will develop antibodies to venom (or decide to react badly!) and the swellings from stings will become a thing of the past (even on face). Good for arthritis in fingers as well.

 

[Levitt53]

I tried it too. Sitting here with very swollen hands and a husband with an ‘I told you so’ look on his face. Not ready for that yet. Will stick with my marigolds.

 

[Swarm]

Bare hands, is this an ego thing or have I missed something?

 

[Swarm]

Well done.
I find it makes me much more sensitive to the bees and more deliberate in my handling.
Avon Skin So Soft Original on the hands helps if you have the odd excitable colony. But I always carry vinyls and marigolds for the odd attack. I draw the line at around 5 stings and then glove up with vinyls.


You will occasionally get stung a lot (10+)...The upside is your body will develop antibodies to venom (or decide to react badly!) and the swellings from stings will become a thing of the past (even on face). Good for arthritis in fingers as well.

And consider requeening that hive.

 

[For want of a better word]

So when are we going No Vail?
Even then I am definitely keeping me jockeys on!
I have no need for a sting in the happy sacks!!

As Icanhopit would have said ( one of my alter egos) just joshin!

Yeghes da
or is it veil??
Yeghes da

 

[Kenson]

No. This is not fair. You have left me with the frightening image of "The Bare Beekeeping Society" running naked from the hives

To Paraphrase the Bard on his birthday:
"Exit, Naked, Stage left pursued by the Bees"

!!!

 

[madasafish]

Bare hands, is this an ego thing or have I missed something?

I started beekeeping in 2010 with a local beekeeper at our Association Apiary in his 70s who had been a BI and had kept bees since the 1960s. He kept with bare hands and had always done so..

Of course, you need quiet bees or it's just an exercise in sadomasochism

 

[birdsandbees]

I'm not going to go for bare hands I have a couple of colonies that I'd be confident in trying it on but I see no point, what I am about to try out are the Long Cuff Nitriles, I have used short ones before but didn't like the exposed wrists
I use thick Nitrile gauntlets at present but I'm keen on disposables for ease of use (propolis and Honey) but mainly for hygiene purposes, especially between Apiaries, I clean my tools but the gloves are always a concern.

 

[Beefriendly]

I'm not going to go for bare hands I have a couple of colonies that I'd be confident in trying it on but I see no point, what I am about to try out are the Long Cuff Nitriles,.

I find there isn't too much difference in "feel" between nitriles and bare hands. Wearing gloves the propolis and gunk ends up on them not on you.

 

[enrico]

When I first started, my mentor would not let me wear gloves. I got stung and he said that I could put my gloves on now. He then added that if I dropped dead in the next ten minutes then beekeeping wasn't for me. If I lived I knew I would be ok if I ever got stung again.
Worn gloves ever since! Oh well!!
E

 

[linoleum bonypart]

Those amazon one Dani sent a link to are great tougher than some I've had

 

[For want of a better word]

Those amazon one Dani sent a link to are great tougher than some I've had

I purchased a box of medium long cuff... not necessarily for beekeeping as all of my colonies are used to the ungloved hand.

Medium seem to be a bit snug ( I am size 7, hands size has not changes since I did my stint in the mortuary) and the sleeves are a tad too short for my purposes... nice colour tho!!

Yeghes da

 

[madasafish]

And consider requeening that hive.