Beekeeper Clothing To Wear or Not To Wear?
If you are thinking about taking up beekeeping one of your first purchases should be beekeeper clothing. Well, it is a great thing to get into. Having honeybees can help you pollinate your garden, provide you with fruits and vegetables, and best of all, sweet natural honey. Though beekeeping has many blessings, it can potentially be dangerous, especially lethal for those who are allergic to bee stings. Even for normal healthy people, too many bee stings cal also be lethal. For this reason, proper beekeeper clothing is necessary when you need to tend your bee hives and harvest your honey.
What Is the Right Beekeeper clothing?
There are quite a few choices when looking for the right protective clothing to wear while tending your bee hives and harvesting your honey. Furthermore, many beekeeper supply stores and websites will also carry a wide variety of beekeeper clothing. The key is to look at good clothing is that it is made from a strong, thick, and either light colored or white. The clothing color is very important in beekeeper clothing, because most honey bee’s natural predators, such as bears, are dark and furry. For this reason, the dark color can be perceived as a threat and may cause honey bees to release defensive pheromones. These pheromones are special chemicals that bees emit to communicate with each other within the colony. When one bee outside the hives sees a threat, it will release defensive pheromones that make the bees become aggressive and this is what happens when you see the bees swarming around the hive.
Because bees do not have any natural predators which are light in color or smooth in texture, that is why your protective beekeeper clothing should be white and of a smooth texture. Furthermore, beekeeper clothing should be made from a breathable tight woven material and should be loosely fitted to prevent a bee’s stinger from penetrating the material and getting into your skin. The material should also be rather heavy duty and you should wear some thick clothing underneath.
Which Beekeeper Clothing is the Best Choice?
There are different articles available to protect the most important and sensitive part of your exposed body from bee stings — your face. One of the most common pieces of beekeeper protective clothing used by many beekeepers is the beekeeper hat. This is a hat that is made from white or light colored thick material. Primarily, beekeeper hats are made from canvas and have a wide rim around the edge of the hat. From this hat hangs down a veil that is made from a transparent netting and covers your face and other parts around your head. The bottom of the veil has a drawstring that you tighten around the collar of your protective coat.
Likewise the protective coat should have long sleeves to cover your arms. The protective coat should be worn loosely and that also applies for protective pants. Some beekeepers from the old country may not even necessarily wear protective clothing except for the hat and veil, though it is recommended you wear the beekeeper clothing for protection.
On the other hand, if you are looking for some beekeeper clothing that is more practical, you might think about buying the cricket suit. The cricket suit is wonderful and you do not have to buy the extra protective clothing as you do with the beekeeper hat except for leather gloves to protect your hands. The cricket suit is actually all the protective clothing you need in one piece. It is a white jump suit with a special hood that will cover your face and neck. The cricket suit looks a bit like an astronaut costume, but what is great about it is that you have a see-through screen in front of your face, which is far enough away from your face and also protects your entire head. You have removable struts that provide the hood of the cricket suit rigid, but you can remove the rods when you want to wash the suit. The hood itself can be removed by unzipping the zipper all the way also. When ordering your cricket suit, you should order it one size larger than what you wear. Wearing loosely fitted beekeeper clothing will keep the bees stingers from getting to your skin.
Leather Gloves
Though many experienced beekeepers do not wear leather gloves when they handle the bee hives, you should wear them until you know how you can handle bee stings. Beekeeper clothing for a novice is necessary. If you are allergic to bees, you should definitely wear leather gloves, despite how cumbersome they are. Many seasoned beekeepers do not wear these gloves because they are very cumbersome and it is hard to handle the hives while wearing them. Furthermore, your hands have the ability to get accustomed to venom from bees and other insects if you handle them enough. This is why seasoned beekeepers do not wear gloves.
Beekeeping can be a wonderful thing to get into and with the right beekeeper clothing, you will be able to tend your hives easily and without trouble.
