>> Note the lack of gloves and hairnets. > And belt guards-watch those fingers and ears! I wasn't there, I had fled to my place on Shelter Island, and I was on the beach with Joanne at the time. Sadly, the belt guard was not attached to the extractor by the hipsters, who also set the leg height way too high, hence the sarcastic photo caption " Definitely NOT an OSHA violation". But there is a belt guard, of course. The problem is that the younger beekeepers are all convinced that they are "immortal and invincible". No amount of statistics can convince them that a young person is far more likely to be "immoral and invisible". :) Actually, the biggest risk in urban beekeeping is the risk of a novice getting a bee inside, or merely ON their veil - I tell everyone that if you see the legs-side of the bee, then the bee is on the outside of the veil, but if you see only the wing-side of the bee, then it is on the INSIDE of the veil, and the veil must be removed slowly and with great care, because the natural irrepressible human instinctive reaction is to run when suspecting that one has a bee in one's veil. Now, if the bee actually is inside the veil, this will not help at all, as the bee is certain to come along for the ride, and perhaps become upset by the running. But worse yet, roofs are only so large, and many have no railings or parapets, and all tend to be higher than one would want to fall. So far, we have taken zero casualties, not as much as a trip to the doctor needed. (Knock on wood.) *********************************************** The BEE-L mailing list is powered by L-Soft's renowned LISTSERV(R) list management software. For more information, go to: http://www.lsoft.com/LISTSERV-powered.html