Here's Gavin's tip for the day. Give long-cuffed nitriles a try. These thin gloves are no worse for stings getting through than leather (with or without latex on top). I'll be insisting that all visitors wear them at the association apiary today (or go bare-handed if they prefer) and, if you like, I'll report back on how many stings got through. Most likely none going from previous experience.
I reckon that it is the most effective thing people can do to improve their beekeeping, to jetison their gauntlets. The bees will not try to sting you (nearly as much!), you will handle them more sympathetically, there will be less strife between beekeeper and bees, and, with a bit of practice, you will be able to pick up individual bees (particularly the queen, obviously). For us, the main reason originally was the risk of spreading disease, but now I'd never go back. The apiary with the yellow painted road outside somewhere near Longforgan is a leather glove-free zone.
If the bees locally tend to the aggressive, work towards reducing that. Select the calmest stocks for raising new queens. In stocks about to make (or starting to make) queen cells, give them a frame of eggs, cut through 2/3 of the way down and with every third cell opened out a little, from a calm colony (yours or someone else's) and use those Q cells in other colonies too. Buy a couple of Apideas. Try grafting (visit someone who does if it is daunting).
That's two tips and perhaps three. Couldn't help myself.
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