Beemaster's International Beekeeping Forum

BEEKEEPING LEARNING CENTER => GENERAL BEEKEEPING - MAIN POSTING FORUM. => Topic started by: BeeHopper on May 23, 2006, 08:34:13 pm

Title: Warning: Wear your hat and veil
Post by: BeeHopper on May 23, 2006, 08:34:13 pm
no matter how calm your girls act in front of you, there will always be that ONE with a bad hair day. I dropped by my 3 hives today for a quick peek under the covers for comb building status by looking down the end frames, keep in mind I am NOT wearing my gear and no smoker. I peek under NO.1 where there is progress, the girls remain calm. I do the same under No.2, and OH CRAP !!, a huge nest of ants between the inner and outer covers, I quickly brush them off, again the girls remain calm as I return the covers.
Hive No.3 is a feral swarm I caught weeks earlier, they are doing well too and I am surprised at how docile they were. All is well, I returned to hives 1 and 2 where I kneel between them just behind the front edges of the hives to observe returning foragers full of honey and pollen, I was focused on this one little girl as she scurried right to edge of the landing,  she took flight, made a U-TURN and went straight for my face only to bury her POINTY BUTT right on my NOSE. I bolted for the truck mirror to scrape off the stinger and venom sack. Yeah, I thought all the girls loved me  :oops:
Lesson Learned : Wear the GEAR  :wink:
Title: Warning: Wear your hat and veil
Post by: Understudy on May 23, 2006, 09:31:10 pm
I got popped right below the eye today just watching them fly in/out of the entrance and a I was a few feet away. It looks like I have a sty.  I can't say that I will always wear my equipment but I have learned to accept the fact that on occasion a bee is going to get me. The hope is that it doesn't get me someplace good like right in the eye. Maybe some clear glasses wouldn't be uncalled for or safety googles.  95% of the time when I am around or doing simple inspections things go well. Every once in a while one bee decides to make the noble sacrifice.  

I am developing quite the immunity to the venom though.

Sincerely,
Brendhan
Title: Warning: Wear your hat and veil
Post by: Apis629 on May 23, 2006, 09:34:45 pm
Just the other day I was standing infront of the hive, about 15 feet away, casually observing when a bee actually got caught under my glasses and stung me on the outside edge of my right eye.  Surprisingly, it hurt less than when I get stung on the fingers!
Title: Warning: Wear your hat and veil
Post by: Joe on May 26, 2006, 02:41:31 pm
Yesterday I quickly opened one of my hives to check a queen cage I had inserted a few days ago.  The queen was released so I pulled the cage and just as I was closing the hive back up a single bee flew from the hive and stung me on my cheek, right under my eye.  I get stung on the wrists alot and getting stung on my cheek was nowhere near as painful.  If you dislike getting stung then I definatly recommend you weir your veil every time you open your hives, as for me this is the first time getting stung during a quick look see so I think I'm going to keep risking it. :D
Title: Warning: Wear your hat and veil
Post by: Mr T-Bone on May 26, 2006, 11:07:19 pm
I was showing off one of my "docile" hives, bragging about how gentle and sweet the ladies were. All of a sudden on of the litte #$%^&* popped me. I guess my lesson learned was not to brag about them when I'm being watched by the one I'm bragging to. :roll:
Title: Warning: Wear your hat and veil
Post by: Brian D. Bray on May 27, 2006, 01:04:38 am
T-Bone I love your avatar, I use to run hound dogs--
"He's chasing hound dogs through the night
When he could be home snuggled up to the wife.
He drive's a big cornbinder with 4 wheel drive
Got more dogs in the back than bees in a hive."
 
Words from Ridge-runnin' Fool by me.

Bees are like life, just when you think everything is going great they sting in the butt, or some other place.
Title: I'm glad I wore it
Post by: yoderski on June 01, 2006, 07:18:16 pm
Although a newbie, my one hive is so docile that most of the time I don't use a smoker.  Today while changing a regular bottom board to SBB, I dropped the SBB--and my docile bees suddenly were not!  If I wouldn't have my gear on, it would have been impossible.  I think I learned a valuable lesson today......
Title: Warning: Wear your hat and veil
Post by: Hi-Tech on June 02, 2006, 01:17:55 am
Thats why I always where my suit. You just never know....
Title: Warning: Wear your hat and veil
Post by: Michael Bush on June 02, 2006, 07:55:49 am
I guess i just noticed this is titled "wear your hat and veil".  If you get an English style veil, you won't need the hat. :)  I've been using the English style for the last seven years and really like them.
Title: Warning: Wear your hat and veil
Post by: yoderski on June 02, 2006, 10:14:16 am
Michael, can you get that style in the states, I suppose?
Title: Warning: Wear your hat and veil
Post by: Brian D. Bray on June 02, 2006, 04:00:36 pm
Most well know suppliers have them, In England the main maufacturer is Sherriff so look 4 that brand name.  Either English or Sherriff is what is used in descriptions of the style.  There is also the Brazilian which I believe is a jacket with sown in veil with attached hat.  All one piece, zippered.
Title: Warning: Wear your hat and veil
Post by: Jay on June 02, 2006, 05:24:38 pm
Dadant carries them:

(https://www.dadant.com/catalog/images/V01210.jpg)

$41.95 before shipping. This is the one I use and am very happy with it! :D
Title: Warning: Wear your hat and veil
Post by: JKJ on June 02, 2006, 07:29:42 pm
When I go out to look at my hives (and not touch them), I slip a light-weight green net over my head just in case one decides to go for my face.  (This happened once and I'd rather not repeat it.)

This type of net is sold in sporting goods stores as face camouflage for deer hunters who hunt with bows.  It compresses to about the size of a handkerchief in my pocket so I tend to carry it with me when I am outside in case I decide to walk down the field to the hives.  This is the same net I wear over my sun hat when bushhogging with the tractor during yellow jacket season (along with long sleeves, gloves, etc!).

An observation: I think the green makes me invisible to the bees - even if one gets interested in buzzing at me it ignores my face.  Maybe I look like a big green non-threatening weed.  It also helps to wear a green shirt. In fact, I'm thinking of dying my entire bee suit green.

Now if I wear my bright blue tee shirt with "TEXAS" written in big fluorescent orange/red letters on the front, for some reason my normally well-behaved little sweethearts get all stirred up! :)

JKJ
Title: Warning: Wear your hat and veil
Post by: keeper007 on July 03, 2006, 02:57:47 pm
i need to start wearing a hat or something when i look at my hive...
once when i went up to look at my hive i stood in a beeline and a bee got stuck in my hair! :shock:


i didnt get stung but it scared me half to death
Title: stings
Post by: wayne on July 03, 2006, 03:49:07 pm
On most removals I get popped at a distance or not at all. Some of them critters are as bad as Bald Faced Hornets in hitting several feet from the nest.
  I also seem to get hit on the face most of the time. The wife says she can see why, but I'm not sure what she means.


wayne
Title: Warning: Wear your hat and veil
Post by: fcderosa on July 03, 2006, 07:25:07 pm
Quote from: JKJ
When I go out to look at my hives (and not touch them), I slip a light-weight green net over my head just in case one decides to go for my face.  (This happened once and I'd rather not repeat it.)

This type of net is sold in sporting goods stores as face camouflage for deer hunters who hunt with bows.  It compresses to about the size of a handkerchief in my pocket so I tend to carry it with me when I am outside in case I decide to walk down the field to the hives.  This is the same net I wear over my sun hat when bushhogging with the tractor during yellow jacket season (along with long sleeves, gloves, etc!).

An observation: I think the green makes me invisible to the bees - even if one gets interested in buzzing at me it ignores my face.  Maybe I look like a big green non-threatening weed.  It also helps to wear a green shirt. In fact, I'm thinking of dying my entire bee suit green.

Now if I wear my bright blue tee shirt with "TEXAS" written in big fluorescent orange/red letters on the front, for some reason my normally well-behaved little sweethearts get all stirred up! :)

JKJ



Maybe you have YANKEE Bees :lol:
Title: Warning: Wear your hat and veil
Post by: KONASDAD on July 03, 2006, 08:46:45 pm
Wearing a dark colored shirt? One bee always gets in my face if I/m wearing a black tshirt. Otherwise they just ignore me when I do micro-isnpections like you described.
Title: ok, lets do the math
Post by: bayareaartist on July 04, 2006, 04:40:33 pm
I have to question, you opened a hive without a veil? You looked in? Just because you got away with it in the past and that you think they are docile, I have to question the intelligence of the act.

This is my second year beekeeping and I always suit up.
Suit, veil, gloves, smoker, I take no chances. I was beekeeping with someone on a platform and they were up there with shorts on and the veils just loosely on. I look at this and I have to question the intelligence factor of people who are by most regards quite intelligent.
Then a bee gets up in their veil and she stings them on their nose. And later they told me “I got stung ten times on my leg one day working another hive.”
Ten times? I get stung once and I change what I was doing right then and there. I have my smoker always at hand. Mostly it’s because I pinch one next to my suit that I get stung. I am pretty sure that person was wearing shorts at that time too.
A word comes to mind – “Idiot” seems to fit.
I heard a story about people being stung a lot of times in the fingers working a hive. How about they sting you once you put your gloves on?
I went to a community garden we have here in San Francisco and they had placed their hive right near the gate to the garden with the opening pointed right into the garden, you had to cross right in front of the flight path, I mentioned this might not be a good thing. They wanted to do it this way so people could SEE the bees at the opening. They were buzzing me. Actually they were buzzing the person who did it right at their nose; I was just waiting for the guard bee to sting him there. I left; what has happened to “common sense?”

I’m a Sous chef and if I burn or cut myself I change what I was doing. It usually has to do with a momentary laps of intelligence. I try to keep this at a minimum. I ask myself very quickly, why was my concentration broken?

How about we look at it this way.
“I was butchering a leg of lamb and I nicked myself, it was ok it happens, so I just went on the same way and I nicked myself another ten times. It’s ok, I’m tough, I’m macho.”
I actually have worked with cooks like this and they were misinformed, Stupid is a good word for it.

I think some beekeepers are mistaking machismo for stupidity.

This is right up there with people snorkeling and screwing with scorpion fish.
It's ok, I've never had a problem in the past.
Title: Warning: Wear your hat and veil
Post by: Dick Allen on July 05, 2006, 02:47:57 am
Although I keep a veil nearby, I generally don't wear a veil when inspecting or working hives.
Title: Re: ok, lets do the math
Post by: thomashton on July 05, 2006, 12:15:10 pm
Quote from: bayareaartist
I have to question, you opened a hive without a veil? You looked in? Just because you got away with it in the past and that you think they are docile, I have to question the intelligence of the act.

This is my second year beekeeping and I always suit up.
Suit, veil, gloves, smoker, I take no chances. I was beekeeping with someone on a platform and they were up there with shorts on and the veils just loosely on. I look at this and I have to question the intelligence factor of people who are by most regards quite intelligent.
Then a bee gets up in their veil and she stings them on their nose. And later they told me “I got stung ten times on my leg one day working another hive.”
Ten times? I get stung once and I change what I was doing right then and there. I have my smoker always at hand. Mostly it’s because I pinch one next to my suit that I get stung. I am pretty sure that person was wearing shorts at that time too.
A word comes to mind – “Idiot” seems to fit.
I heard a story about people being stung a lot of times in the fingers working a hive. How about they sting you once you put your gloves on?
I went to a community garden we have here in San Francisco and they had placed their hive right near the gate to the garden with the opening pointed right into the garden, you had to cross right in front of the flight path, I mentioned this might not be a good thing. They wanted to do it this way so people could SEE the bees at the opening. They were buzzing me. Actually they were buzzing the person who did it right at their nose; I was just waiting for the guard bee to sting him there. I left; what has happened to “common sense?”

I’m a Sous chef and if I burn or cut myself I change what I was doing. It usually has to do with a momentary laps of intelligence. I try to keep this at a minimum. I ask myself very quickly, why was my concentration broken?

How about we look at it this way.
“I was butchering a leg of lamb and I nicked myself, it was ok it happens, so I just went on the same way and I nicked myself another ten times. It’s ok, I’m tough, I’m macho.”
I actually have worked with cooks like this and they were misinformed, Stupid is a good word for it.

I think some beekeepers are mistaking machismo for stupidity.

This is right up there with people snorkeling and screwing with scorpion fish.
It's ok, I've never had a problem in the past.


Funny,  I rarely wear a veil or jacket when working bees. I think I've only fired up the smoker three times. I wear gloves even less.

If I am doing a big "tear down", ie swapping frames, inserting foundation in between drawn frames, adding SBB, scraping a lot of propolis or brace comb etc, then I will wear a jacket/veil, but otherwise, they really don't bother me. I don't know if I have the patience to spend 10 minutes firing up a smoker and getting dressed etc.

A bee brush and hive tool in the back pocket of my jeans is usually all I need.

I would not call myself an idiot (I am a wildlife biologist), nor would I call people stupid who act this way. People have different ways of working bees and different levels of how comfortable they are with the bees. I feel not as big and clunky without my gear so I rarely wear it. I have only been stung three times this year. Approach them from the side or behind. Do it on a warm, still day. Use slow, direct movements. You'll be fine. Oh, and a soft blow on the bees will have them run down the frames just as fast as a puff of smoke will.
Title: Re: ok, lets do the math
Post by: Jerrymac on July 05, 2006, 02:18:12 pm
Quote from: thomashton
Oh, and a soft blow on the bees will have them run down the frames just as fast as a puff of smoke will.


HOLY BEE STINGS BATMAN!!!!!

What kind of bees you got? If I get a frame too close to the nose and breath on them they get very angery.
Title: Warning: Wear your hat and veil
Post by: BeeHopper on July 05, 2006, 03:09:52 pm
Nice to see the different styles of beekeeping here, BUT sooner or later, " POW, right in the Kisser "  :shock:
Title: Warning: Wear your hat and veil
Post by: Dick Allen on July 05, 2006, 03:51:34 pm
>BUT sooner or later, " POW, right in the Kisser "

Not often, but yes sometimes it happens, as I well know.  :)
Title: Re: ok, lets do the math
Post by: thomashton on July 05, 2006, 05:13:21 pm
Quote from: Jerrymac
Quote from: thomashton
Oh, and a soft blow on the bees will have them run down the frames just as fast as a puff of smoke will.


HOLY BEE STINGS BATMAN!!!!!

What kind of bees you got? If I get a frame too close to the nose and breath on them they get very angery.


I must have docile bees if you guys are saying yours are otherwise. As I am just a first year, I don't know differently.

They are Italian/Carniolan hybrids that came out of the Sacramento area. don't know where exactly as I got them through the local bee store.
Title: Warning: Wear your hat and veil
Post by: ddarity on July 05, 2006, 06:35:33 pm
They must be Sooner fans!

Now if I wear my bright blue tee shirt with "TEXAS" written in big fluorescent orange/red letters on the front, for some reason my normally well-behaved little sweethearts get all stirred up! :)

JKJ[/quote]
Title: Warning: Wear your hat and veil
Post by: Dick Allen on July 06, 2006, 02:35:07 am
I sometimes blow VERY GENTLY on a frame to move bees, but there are times even gentle blowing will upset them. My understanding is that bees don't care for the carbon dioxide in a persons breath.
Title: Warning: Wear your hat and veil
Post by: thomashton on July 07, 2006, 01:01:12 pm
OK, I got my 4th sting of the season yesterday, but it was all my fault. I put my ungloved hand down right on a stinger and when I pulled up, got the hit.

I haven't been in the hives for 2 weeks or so and one definately needed more room--brace comb everywhere. Another hive had fully drawn, filled and capped one side of a frame but didn't build off the face of the foundation, but from the top. So, there was a hollow space on the back side between the foundation and the comb. I was able to scrape along the foundation and pull out a big piece of cut comb.  :D

They have to rebuild that of course, but I got some early honey and they were otherwise too interested in cleaning up spilled honey to care about stinging me.