I have been reading the discussions of mean bees and noticed some
references to bees stinging especially around the ankles.  That
triggered a thought that might provide an explanation of why some of
these colonies are misbehaving.
 
Bees don't seem to mind if sheep wear wool, but they really are
infuriated by people wearing wool.  I've had colonies with perfect
manners go into a general frenzy at my ankles when I forgot and wore
wool socks.  I'm very careful about baseball caps since many of them
contain wool.  There's a pretty good discussion about wool in ABC & XYZ.
 
I haven't seen a good explanation for why bees hate wool on people so
much.  My personal and totally untested theory is that processed wool +
human scent mimics the scent of some historical predator of bees, such
as bears (or maybe even humans who, after all, have worn wool and robbed
bees, probably at the same time, for thousands of years.)
 
BTW, I think dark colors are over-rated as an irritant to bees.  I work
in black or dark colored T-shirts without a veil routinely - but only
cotton or cotton-poly blends.  I'm sure there's something to the white
suit tradition but it's not usually a big deal.  Wool definitely is.
 
Michael Reddell
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http://www.hotcity.com/~mwr