George wrote:
You will NEVER become a beekeeper if you wear gloves.  Gloves make bees
sting you.  Work bare-handed, get a few stings (that will teach you what
you are doing wrong), and you will develop some immunity to stings
depending on how many you get

Greetings
I used to think this was true. I used to get 50 or more stings a day and
think nothing of it. But when I got this job at the bee lab I was
introduced to latex dishwashing gloves. These are not *sting proof*, but
bees don't seem to sting them very often, and when they do, it doesn't
hurt. I can do almost anything I can do bare-handed including catching
queens. They also keep my hands from getting covered with propolis.

If the weather is warm and sunny, I go bare-handed. But it isn't like that
a lot of the time, and with a large number of hives to work, I often have
to bother them during bad weather. This is where gloves are useful. I buy
them by the gross now and throw them out when they get too sticky or
ripped. I still get stung enough to keep up my immunity, but if I am
getting more than one every couple of minutes, it's time to throw on the
gloves.

George is right, of course, that the stings will make you more careful and
a better beekeeper. But there are many times that no amount of care will
prevent the bees from stinging. If you only have a couple of hives, you can
just not work them when they are edgy, but if you have to go in on a bad
day -- try the latex gloves. (I also wear coveralls all the time now, but
that's as much to keep from staining my regular clothes as anything).

pb