sweaty hands and marigolds - I've tried wearing thin cotton gloves under - soaks up the sweat so that the cotton gloves come off drenched, but hands smell less sweaty and rubbery.
I've also tried dusting the insides of marigolds liberally with talc powder but i just end up with caked bits of powder everywhere.
regarding bee stings - i've found that when a guard bee stings, even when the sting is immediately scraped off, the reaction tends to be very bad. when it's a young/nurse bee, such as those accidentally squashed during manipulations, there's hardly any swelling.
smoking your gloved hands liberally while inspecting was a trick i picked up from a fellow beek. So I sometimes wear nitrile with cotton underneath and smoke my hands every so often.
