I came into Beeking quite by accident over 15 years ago although I had been thinking of it for quite a while. At the time beeks here were using white overalls and a veil. I was pretty broke at the time trying to put 2 teenagers through school and uni, being eaten out of house and home and making ends meet, so I made do with what ever clothes I was wearing.
A few (quite a few) stings later I realised that it is a good idea to put 2 thicknesses of socks on and a rubber band to stop the ladies (?) from crawling up your leg. Long sleeves would have been good but in the sub tropics, long sleeves(?).
As things progressed and the $ seemed to go a bit further, I figured I would buy some white overalls like the other beeks but the $'s were too many so I bought some white fabric and made a top and trousers to fit... I am no seamstress so you can imagine what they looked like.. (no I am not posting pics).
Well my beeking improved and I found that gentleness with the ladies works well (now I know why I was a failure as a potential ladies man) and most of the time I open the hives with only a bit of smoke and sometimes if I am manipulating, a veil. If things are a little angst I also use my old home-made top.
A bee suit would have been nice in the early days, yes. Glad to have the top that I made at times but the duds are useless and have not been used for years. Don't even wear double socks or gloves any more.. just a pair of shorts and let the girls play with the hairs on my legs. Now that never happened in my younger days :roll:
Mick