I can speak from personal experience about the dark curly hair and bee
stings. When I still had hair on top of my head, it was dark and curly, and I
had to keep it covered. Bees would dive in to it, get stuck, panic, and
let loose.
Now that there's little on top and the remaining is white, with most of the
remaining migrated south to under my nose and chin, very seldom do bees go
for the hair.
But, my prescription glasses automatically turn dark in the sun - and
if/when I get a hit to the head, its almost always around the edge of the
glasses.
I'm a firm believer in smoke - our bee counters have shown that the calming
effect may last to some degree for hours. Give me a choice of a suit/veil
or smoke, I'll take the smoke. I do NOT like working bees without smoke -
they get progressively meaner, every time you work them - and with some of
our research, we're in the colonies weekly.
Since I travel a lot and seldom wear a suit, I'm a fan of the hood attached
to the over-the-shoulder mesh that Sheriff sells - idea is you can use it
with any suit, jacket. I can fold it in to my luggage, and its easy to
just wear it, flip the hood back, but if I run in to bees that are mean, I can
flip it up.
My wife watches the Good Will, picks up white or light colored shirts and
jackets. Light colored jeans, or light colored cargo pants; western boots
to protect the ankles without having to tie down the cuffs, a light colored
shirt, and when needed the mesh veil - and I'll do just about anything
other than shaking packages - when I'll put on a jacket with veil.
FYI, Scott, my main bee manager works at calming bees, and it seems to
work. He'll isolate a mean colony, work it for a while until it 'calms' down,
then moves it back to the main yard - all without changing the queen.
Jerry
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