Dress for Success

The first item ordered for my beekeeping kit was a veil so that I can participate as Becca and Anna maintain their hives. As for clothing, Becca recommended purchasing an inexpensive and very large pair of scrub pants as the goal is large and loose. She modified one of her husband's large white dress shirts with a strip of Velcro down the front to prevent the bees from being able to sneak in between the buttons.

The first time I visited Becca and Anna's hives I was the photographer and my veil had not yet arrived. I was wearing short pants and a sleeveless shirt. I was about as bare as I could be! While not handling the frames myself, I did get right in there to observe and the bees were not concerned with us at all.

Anna and Becca were 'sugaring' their hives, which is one of the least invasive methods of controlling Varroa Mites (I'll write more on mites in another post). Sugaring encourages the tidy bees to clean one another and thus, aids in the removal of the mites. It was rather fun watching the white, sugar coated bees that look like little ghost-bees flying around us.

In a recent trip to town I picked up a pair of scrub pants. White was sold out so I selected light green. Light colors are best when working with bees so maybe they will think the bottom half of me is a shrub.