Bee Beards are fun and do make a good photo. When I do one I rig it in my
favour by doing the following. Do it at a time of year when the bees are
not robbing. Feed the hive for two days just to help keep them happy. Pick
a hive with bees that are quiet The day before you do the bee beard shift
the hive about 500 yards to the photo location to loose the old cranky
felid bees. Leave a hive in its place to pick up the drift bees. On the day
find the queen and cage her. Get fine fishing line and tie the cage under
the chin and attached to the ears. Block the nose and ears with cotton
wool. Smear petroleum jelly around the eyes. Breath through your teeth.
Prior to this preparation and after finding the queen shake about a gallon
of bees off the brood in to a cardboard box. Have a smoker handy for gentle
use, also a hand held spray mister fill of water. Find a turkey feather,
best found the day before.  Your helper is important because they will need
to be prepared to scrape that sting of your nose and to groom the bees into
shape using the feather. The odd mist with water might be needed but don't
use smoke near the eyes. Once you have the queen under the chin and the
cotton wool in place, pick up you cardboard box of bees and gently shake
them on to your upper chest. They will form up in about 10 minutes. I don't
often get a sting putting them on but getting them off is more difficult.
After the photos have been taken shake your self in to the box after first
removing the queen by cutting the fishing line or by ripping off your ear.
A vacuum cleaner is a handy tool to clean up.
The first bee beard I did when really well. The photos were all taken with
great care. When the photos were developed I was disappointed to see these
two large white things running out my nose! My heavy breathing had
dislodged the cotton wool and the photographer did not have the presence of
mind to tell me. You will have seen children with a bad runny nose, well my
photos looked just like that. the photos were later improved with an air
brush so all was not lost.

Have fun

Bryan Clements
www.honeynz.co.nz

-----Original Message-----
From:   [log in to unmask] [SMTP:[log in to unmask]]
Sent:   Wednesday, 19 July 2000 15:31
To:     [log in to unmask]
Subject:        Bee Beard

Hello

I am thinking about doing a bee beard for the first time. Before I get up
enough courage to try it I thought I better get some advice. Can anyone
offer
some of the finer points to this artform?

(yes Allen, I have already checked the archives and am asking for even more
info)

Cesar Flores
Colorado, USA