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.â€
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?â€
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.â€
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.