Gloves or no gloves?

[Luminos]

There's so much propolis on my gloves, the bees can't sting through it

 

[DarynWebb]

Kimberly Clark Nitrle Xtra Gloves have a longer cuff. I have been using them since spring with no problems. Got them from Solway Bee Supplies.

Thanks will look into them

 

[danro]

If like me you feal a bit of a 'plok' with yellow gloves go find the black ones

Stay safe

Colour of the glove makes a HUGE difference!!

I did some work last year recovering some hives that had been forgotten for years. My brother helped, his first encounter with bees, so I handed him some welding gauntlets, so if he did get stung it would not go through. For some of the time I too had gauntlets on, as we were cutting down 7 years(ish) of brambles
see http://www.beekeepingforum.co.uk/showthread.php?t=11275

My gloves were a dark navy blue. His were be much brighter blue and he had a cloud of bees constantly stinging the gloves. It did not matter which hive he was near nor what he was doing, they just did not like the gloves and continued stinging even when they were off and in the boot of the car.

I tend to use either green or yellow washing up gloves as I think the bees know what is skin (easy to sting) and what is protected..

My 2p worth

Danny

 

[eleanor20]

I use SHONA gardening gloves. They have rubberised palms and underside of fingers but are still thin/soft enough to feel what you are doing, but makes me feel safe. The backs are soft fabric, like socks, which I guess would not offer much protection if a bee were determined to get me! The ones I use are light blue and I have never had a sting through them yet (that's cursed it!) but you can get them in a whole range of colours, I also have pink as a spare pair.
My Dad was more of a "naked" beek, he never wore gloves that I remember, and often just had a lighted *** in his mouth instead of a smoker or veil!!!!!

 

[Excession]

This guy should wear gloves:

[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=38o9QHleEw4&feature=youtube_gdata_player[/ame]

 

[Cazza]

Up until 10 years or so ago I was much less careful than I am now. A queenless hive taught me a painful lesson. Then I had a worrying experience with a non bee related allergic reaction which hospitalised me for a few days. Took me a month to be able to return to work and I still looked and felt awful when I went back. This put me off taking any risk of any allergic reactions to anything.
Nowadays I take PPE VERY seriously.

No gloves is a no no.

Cazza

 

[lusklabs]

I've always worn gloves and after last year, I will continue to wear leather gauntlets.

Last year, I was going through the hives when I got stung on the back of the hand between the thumb and forefinger. I managed to pull the sting out and then went to work. One hour later, with pain mounting, I decided to go to the pharmacy. By this time my hand and forearm had swollen right up and the pharmacist gave me an antihistamine and told me that if the pain did not ease then I should go and see my doctors. Well, that day the pain eased a little and to cut a long story short, I had an ECG and blood tests...a few days later and the pain had gone. I have been stung this year and so far so good...so maybe last year was just a one off, who knows. Anyway, I will be using gloves again this year.

One of the hives swarmed this year and as I didnt have anywhere to put them, I called in a bee keeper to come and take them away. He didnt have any gloves on at all

 

[lusklabs]

Just watched that You Tube video

 

[dudley]

Just watched that You Tube video

Me too, what did he achieve? He would have been lucky to have got the queen off the branch like that.

 

[Poly Hive]

Gloves and no gloves, who cares?

What ever you feel comfortable with.

PH

 

[REDWOOD]

Ensuring sympathetic handling is (or should be) the aim of all of us, my only concern about the theme of this thread (i.e. minimum / no hand protection) is the 'un-expected'. We might understand the rules but you can't ensure the bees do. See a previous threads with regard multiple sting reactions and a previous thread where a (subsequently identified as queenless) hive on rape attacked me when I hadn't opened or manipulated their hive at all. There we hundreds of stings on gloves and fore arms and a few got through. By the time you had registered the situation and put your thicker protective gloves on it would have been too late to protect you.

There are times when you are planning to handle the queen or similar where 'feel' is essential, there are other times where maintaining protection should be the norm. I think having gloves that are both effective at protection and fit properly is important. How many times have you seen people in gloves that are wrong for them with spare leather hanging off the end of their fingers to get stuck under frames.

When it comes to PPE I think we should go back to basics, 'plan for the worst, hope for the best'. Sorry, from my own experiences I dont feel happy with the minimalist protection tone of this thread. A happy end to my story, the queenless ******* are now queen right and off the rape and little darlings again. Bee temperament can change faster than your gloves.

I always use leather gloves, but I have taken them off during an inspection but only if the bees are calm

 

[RoseCottage]

There is no such thing as a bee whisperer...it always comes down to the bees themselves.

Personally have tried with and without and now simply don't need to go without. For the operations such as queen marking it is still possible to do this in gloves while pinning her on a comb.

You just cannot trust your bees that much unless you can be sure of their circumstances, breeding attributes, etc.

We have had some very gentle bees but they seem such a distant memory and to be honest we don't keep bees to increase our risks just for a little honey,

All the best,
Sam

 

[BeeJayBee]

Gloves or no gloves, it's a good idea to take off rings before handling bees, because stung fingers can swell quite a lot.

 

[madasafish]

I beekeep without gloves - unless the bees are very bad tempered .

In those cases I wear marigolds. Nitrile for handling fondant.

I loathe sweaty hands...

 

[aberreef]

I swell far too much when stung so don't take any chances. Big thick latex gloves for me every time I touch the hive. Not accidentally squashed a bee yet but still get stung on the fingers from time to time although the sting doesn't penetrate Copped a few stings above the top of the gauntlet last year though My forearm swole so badly I couldn't wear a watch for a week

 

[Sadders]

I have a colleague who has just started a beekeeping course and the teacher advocates that they don't wear gloves.

I really don't get this. I work with gloves and in the 3 years since I have been a beek I have been stung 3 times through the gloves. I know that it would have been many more if I worked without.

With newbies they are likely to be put off if they pick up too many stings too soon.

 

[user 6228]

no gloves ... except for hive hygene reasons

and SWMBO says ... no rings, its no fun having them cut off...

we have had bees sting through motorbike gloves so we have given up on gloves and leave them alone when they dont want to play..

but then our bees will put with alot providing we dont muck them about... i.e. :

• we dont open them up more than once a week
• we go in, do what we planned, get them closed up asap
• use the correx cover boards.

 

[madasafish]

I swell when stung so take 8 hour Benadryl tablets when at risk of being stung. And pull the stings out asap which makes a real difference.

 

[victor meldrew]

I wear gloves when necessary
usually when working on colonies that use propolis to the extreme !
My advice to noobs is to go bare handed as most people swell quite a bit on being stung until their bodies have ceased displaying strong local reactions to bee venom
Thus avoiding the embarrassment/source of amusement of friends and family spotting a huge swollen nose etc. .
Better whip the immune system into shape asap
VM

 

[REDWOOD]

when i nitrate gloves at work and they last about 10 seconds so leather I have no probs with, I can do all beekeeping manipulations with them except marking queen that i do when the hive is calm