Part Two — Personal Protection 



This of course forms the main armour in defending oneself 

 against bee stings, and just as there are dresses for every occasion 

 and occupation, so also is a certain amount of attention necessary 

 in selecting the right clothes for bee-keeping. 



Generally speaking, older clothes are advisable as the bees in 

 flight drop their excreta, and the little droplets, whilst easily removed 

 afterwards, stain light-coloured fabrics. Furthermore, the work of 

 bending and carrying hive parts and supers, or chasing swarms is 

 not fair to good clothes. 



For some reason, bees are antipathetic to black, and garments of 

 this colour should, therefore, be avoided. Material whose nature 

 has a smell, such as tweeds, are also undesirable as well as those 

 whose texture is hairy. Material which possesses a smooth surface 

 with the maximum porosity is to be preferred whenever possible. 



Loose, flapping, clothes are also inadvisable as they irritate 

 the bees, and provide too ready an access for any wanderers to 

 enter attractive-looking dark cavities. It is their natural instinct 

 to climb upwards, and a sudden movement may catch one of these 

 erring insects in a fold of the clothes with inevitable consequences. 



A woman should avoid long loose sleeves, or wear an overall 

 which is close-fitting around the wrists. Skirts are inadvisable, but 

 many women bee-keepers wear them successfully, and provided 

 the bees are docile and the weather not too windy, there is no reason 

 why they should not be worn. If, however, a pair of slacks is 

 possessed, they are undoubtedly the better choice of the two. 



For men, almost any form of clothing, except possibly kilts, is 

 suitable, but in hot weather, an open-necked shirt is more pleasant 

 to work in, for it is hard going while lifting and moving heavy supers 

 about. When one is accustomed to working among bees, and they 

 are docile in temperament, a coat can be dispensed with, and the 

 shirt sleeves rolled up above the elbows. This sounds rather alarming 

 at first, but with gaining confidence it will actually be found that 

 one gets stung less this way than with an open-sleeved jacket or 

 shirt, up which the bees crawl when handling combs. There is, 

 incidentally, another point on this aspect. Many bee-keepers do 

 not know when it is too cold to open up their hives. Generally 

 speaking, if one can take off" one's coat to work and expose the arms, 

 then equally it is warm enough to open up the brood nest. I hesitate, 

 however, to recommend a similar temperature test for lady bee- 

 keepers. 



Whenever trousers or slacks are worn, the bottoms should be 

 secured by cycle clips or elastic bands, or by drawing a pair of 

 men's socks over the lower extremities — particularly advisable 

 -with any operation involving shaking the bees or hiving swarms. 

 In these cases, especially when bees are crawling about on the ground 



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