Thick rubber stingfree gloves?

[Brian Bush]

Poly hive I agree

Polyhive, you are absolutely right. I can't understand the "shouldn't wear gloves" viewpoint. Each to his own but I refuse to be made to feel guilty about this. Gloves for me are essential, I can't afford to be stung and no matter how careful one is, it will happen.
Cazza

After the other thraeds on the site this year how long before beek realise that multiple stings can cause a serious issue. Wear the gloves and if you feel safer you will be less stressed and calmer with the bees.

 

[Crg]

I have kept bees for over 20 years and use gloves all the time.

Isn't it great to still be able to learn after all those years?

There are those who get on get it done and leave the bees alone. If I can do an inspection in under five minutes and let them get on, is that not better than messing about for half an hour?

5 mins to do a full inspection of one hive is about right - I'd never get the inspections done if I went slowly.

 

[Crg]

What utter cr*p! Let's 'logical conclude' a little further. If you are not going to get stung, why wear a veil? Why wear a bee suit?

The only suit I wore when checking my bees this lunchtime was the one I wore to work.

 

[Crg]

After the other thraeds on the site this year how long before beek realise that multiple stings can cause a serious issue. Wear the gloves and if you feel safer you will be less stressed and calmer with the bees.

I feel safe, definitely not stressed, and absolutely calm when I'm working my bees.

 

[Poly Hive]

There is nothing at all wrong with wearing gloves, it is an individual choice.

PH

 

[Ade'sBee's]

leather gaunlet gloves that fit quite tight on fingers then surgical over top

 

[BKF Admin]

leather gaunlet gloves that fit quite tight on fingers then surgical over top

Same here..

 

[Peter Cox]

Does anyone know of a supplier of thick rubber gloves that would prevent stings from penetrating?

My mentor insists that i stop using the usual leather type and switch over to washing up type, but i aint doing that! I have had more than several stings to my gloves already and i am not going to risk poxy washing up gloves...

So any pointers would be good, keywords here are THICK ARMOR PLATED lol

There's a new product on sale in the US that might be the answer for what you want.
I've always found nitrile gloves make your hands look like prunes after a short while besides not being really sting proof. Wearing thin cotton gloves under them solved part of that issue but was akward.
Dura Flock is a combination thicker nitrile glove with a cotton flocking interior liner, also the have longer wrist band that will go over the jacket wrist bands.
Amazon sells them here, don't know about Europe

http://www.duraflockrocks.com/

 

[victor meldrew]

Gloves on gloves off ??.
I think the type of glove matters more than whether or not gloves are worn at all!. the leather glove is now considered to be a hazard in itself ! ( carrying alarm pheromones, reducing sensitivity to touch causing clumsy handling )
I wear gloves (latex surgical type) for two reasons , 1 On hygiene grounds as I handle bees from and in different apiaries ! '
2 To prevent my fingers from getting stuck together as my bees produce excessive propolis .

I don't understand "I can't afford to get stung ", Why? .
Anyone contemplating beekeeping must know that they are going to get stung and the hands are the most stung part of the anatomy .
If you are in a profession requiring manual dexterity (musician, artist, etc.) then I should seriously consider whether or not beekeeping is for me !.

John Wilkinson

 

[merylvingien]

Yea your probably right, after todays episode, i dont fancy get stung to **** on my hands, so i will probably pack it in!

I guess i am just better at killing them after all!

Its been fun guys! Cheerio!

 

[Roy S]

Maybe after 20 years of beekeeping I should pack it in as well then, if all shops should stop selling leather gloves?

Maybe all the people on here dismissing gloves would like to have a word with my wife and convince her that it would be good to spend another night in resus fearing the worst????

lets remind ourselves of a few facts....two beekeepers have died so far this year...one at least of which was an experienced beekeeper....who didnt wear appropriate safety gear. I thank God wasnt another.

I cant wait for the first person to get himself sued for everything they've got because they 'insisted' someone used inappropriate protection....and given the "Where there's a blame there's a claim" mentality that seems to prevail these days.....its only a matter of time

If you dont want to wear gloves, great...thats your choice, but please lets not encourage people to take risks.

 

[victor meldrew]

Maybe after 20 years of beekeeping I should pack it in as well then, if all shops should stop selling leather gloves?

Maybe all the people on here dismissing gloves would like to have a word with my wife and convince her that it would be good to spend another night in resus fearing the worst????

lets remind ourselves of a few facts....two beekeepers have died so far this year...one at least of which was an experienced beekeeper....who didnt wear appropriate safety gear. I thank God wasnt another.

I cant wait for the first person to get himself sued for everything they've got because they 'insisted' someone used inappropriate protection....and given the "Where there's a blame there's a claim" mentality that seems to prevail these days.....its only a matter of time

If you dont want to wear gloves, great...thats your choice, but please lets not encourage people to take risks.

No way can a beekeeper avoid getting stung , you can be pounced on and stung 30 metres from a hive !.
Unless you work Atomic energy style you will get stung!!
Who the hell wants to work bees in that fashion?
Maybe robotic arms from behind plate glass?

I ,to my knowledge , have encouraged no one to take risks!
However, neither have I given anyone a false sense of security by pretending that gauntlet equipped leather gloves are sting proof, they most definitely are not !
I do believe that leather gloves will encourage the bees to sting as they stink of old venom and are almost impossible to clean properly, add the clumsiness element and you have the perfect recipe for being stung through the abhorred (by bees and me) leather gloves.

John Wilkinson

 

[merylvingien]

The simple fact is, the gloves had NOTHING to do with these bees stinging, i suppose you will say next, dont wear trousers! Cause the feckers were stinging those too, or perhaps dont wear a protective top and veil, cause the feckers were stinging that as well...

As soon as the lid came off, they piled out and started, the gloves (which on this occasion, i knew i NEEDED) were just part of the stinging foray...

JESUS, no wonder each year someone dies!

I would love to see you deal with a feck off huge wasp nest, now thems really go at you!

I thought originally that considering my job involves dealing with wasps and bees, that it may be a good idea to take up beekeeping and try and turn a bad thing into a good thing! Also meet some new people and try to forge a few new friendships. A social side, so to speak!
I didnt realise at the time, that the attitude of fellow beekeepers was like it is, or, i wouldnt have bothered.

 

[Roy S]

Well same as a couple of others on here, I now use thin leather gauntlets, with large surgical/nitrile gloves over them , my dexterity hasnt been compromised half as much as I thoght it would. And yes I agree I will still get stung but untiil I've been sensitivity tested for beestings, I'm keeping the risks as low as I can manage.

While it isnt my idea of ideal, it is still better than giving my bees up altogether. and John, I dont think you have encouraged anyone to take risks, quite the opposite in fact. But there are some on here that seem to think it is some sort of indication of beekeeping machismo to wear the least possible. not a good thing for newbies to take on board methinks.

And dont worry I'll soon let everyone know what the reaction to any sting I get is!!!....I'm just not in a hurry to find out .....the anticipation of it is getting worse the longer it is!

 

[victor meldrew]

I took years to get to the state were I stopped swelling up like a Michelin x man every time I got stung (my wife has never reacted at all , from day one ) makes you sick don't it?. Many's the time I nearly packed it in but I'm glad I didn't.

Merylvigien,
I didn't realise I had an attitude , maybe your bees don't have an attitude either ? .
Actually, I do not tolerate aggressive bees (over protective as some people like to say).
Be selective, requeen . kill the whole colony if necessary .
Beekeeping should be a pleasure, a relaxation, certainly not a battle accumulating collateral damage !!.

Don't pack in, do get yourself some decent stock and lighten up

John Wilkinson

 

[Peter Cox]

You people in Europe appear to have much more vicious bees than we do.
I've never heard of anybody here being stung thru leather gloves, even by africanized bees, Arge these only feral bees or do te normal bees you work with behave the same. I was actually brought up in the UK and never had managed to cellect a honey bee sting though did receive several wasp (yellow jacket) ones.

 

[victor meldrew]

Hi Peter ,
the situation in the UK is different to the US in that our population of honeybees are a mixed bunch of mongrels !. We are a small island nation on the edge of Europe. Until the early twenties, most british bee keepers kept AMM bees apis mellifera mellifera(the so called British black bee).
Isle of wight desease devastated the bee population as the BB had little or no immunity !!.
Bees were imported from other countries . mainly Holland Italy france . this has resulted in a mixed gene pool which can and does throw up feisty colonies !
Gradually the bees became homogenised to a degree but the upsurge of imports to meet the increased demands for bees has again stirred up the gene pool.
Bees are imported from around the globe .
One of the more gentle sub species the Carniolan , is notorious for its' F2 offsprings being particularly vicious !

Given this mix plus the rapid additions to it plus the compactness of the UK does require that the temperament of the bees and apiary sites be carefully chosen.

John Wilkinson

 

[m100]

If you dont want to wear gloves, great...thats your choice, but please lets not encourage people to take risks.

No one is encouraging anyone to take unnecessary risks, we're showing a proven, better way to manage bees to reduce the stress to the bees and reduce the level of stings to us.

Case in point, colony at our association apiary a few years ago that stung to buggery. Old timer who'd been keeping bees decades went through them, used heaps of smoke and they still stung to buggery.

Following week another old timer heard this and gathered a few of us round to see if they really were the bees from hell.

He used no smoke and although he had a veil, he went through them with bare hands. Similar weather and light conditions, early evening, similar forage. He didn't get stung, neither did any of the bystanders who, just like the previous week, were fully enclosed head to foot. This beek even found and marked the queen that the other beek couldn't ever find on all the previous occasions.

The risk, if any, is that you'll kill bees and you'll get stung more with leather gloves than with vinyl/nitrile. - ok your gloves might take more of a hit but that is missing the point entirely. With managed colonies, rather than a swarm collection of bees that have been in the rain for a week you shouldn't need the 'protection' of leather gloves. If the bees are that bad then they deserve a better beekeeper or if that doesn't work they deserve the chop.

 

[Frithgar]

I went to a tour of buckfast abbey with my BKA about 12 years ago when I kept bees the first time around. I remember the monk in charge of the buckfast apiaries telling us all about Brother Adam's breeding programmes. As many of you will know, he started out breeding a bee that would be resistant to disease, but as time went on he incorporated many more qualities into the buckfast strain.

I remember something that stuck with me, in that he was breeding for a quiet bee. When he was inspecting a colony if he was stung the first thing he would do would be to find the queen and kill her, replacing her with another queen.

If someone who spent his entire working life with bees, as well as 20+ years specifically breeding gentleness into bees could still be stung, doesn't that mean that any of us can still be stung? Surely then it would be best if each person wore what they were most comfortable with so that they weren't nervous with the bees?

I've seen loads of vids on youtube with beeks using only a veil and wearing shorts and no shirt whilst handling the bees, if that's what you feel comfortable wearing then that's what you should wear.

As I've stated in another thread I wear yellow marigolds with the finger tips removed so that they don't stick to the frames, I'm not comfortable using no gloves and these offer a little protection. The fingertips being removed has meant I can manipulate the frames easier and don't keep jarring the frames when handling them by having to unstick my gloves, means the bees are happier.

I cannot understand why anyone would insist on new beeks wearing no gloves, if you're nervous when handling the bees they will smell the pheromones you're releasing and themselves become agitated.

 

[merylvingien]

Sensible post Frithgar, maybe we should call you "Frithgar the wise"

I think a certain colony could smell pheromones today, but these werent of fear, but of death!

Calm is now restored.