CHRS: IBMPC 2
 CODEPAGE: 850
 MSGID: 240:244/186 81805b30
 REPLY: 240:44/0 ee084485
 PID: FDAPX/w 1.13 UnReg(48)
I must confess to once having owned a pair of leather beekeeping gauntlets.
They made me very clumsy and I stirred the bees up unnecessarily.  I cut off
the thumbs and first 2 fingers and this greatly increased my sensitivity and
enjoyment and reduced aggression problems. I had very few stings on the exposed
digits. The gauntlets fell apart eventually and they have been discarded. I now
have a pair of rubber gauntlets which I use for "rough & ready" operations when
full armour is needed but I don't like them at all and prefer to use bare hands
when appropriate.
Last season I discovered household rubber gloves.  The bees can sting through
them but usually do not.  I have reasonable sensitivity but prefer to take them
off when I don't need them. They are sweaty.
 Most of my apiaries are near water and I have frequently dowsed my hands/
gloves/ hive tool between hives to avoid carrying the scent of one hive into
another, particularly if I have been stung.  It had not occurred to me that I
was being hygienic.  Perhaps Ken would be kind enough to let us know roughly
the proportion of washing soda to water that will be an effective disinfectant
without removing the skin from the fingers.
Chris Slade

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 * Origin: Beenet Point (240:244/186)