At 08:11 AM 5/7/98 -0500, Warren Otto wrote:
 
 
>provides.  However whenever I get stung on the top of the hand or the
>wrist it gets quite swollen and my wrist joint looses a fair bit of
>mobility.  This lasts for a couple of days.  I should also mention that
>this only happens on my wrist.  I have been stung all over and the only
>place that I get a bad reaction is the top of the hand/wrist area.
 
>My question is does anyone know of a company that makes a protection
>device that covers the top of the hand and up to the elbow?  I have
>thought about purchasing a set of bee gloves and just cutting out the
>palm and fingers but then the flap on top of my hand would be loose and
>a bee could crawl up underneath.
 
Hi Warren,
 
In my bee keeping youth there was a piece of bee dress that I have not seen
for years. They were called  "bee gauntlet's" and were made by the women
out of light colored material such as dill or light weight canvas using a
modified shirt sleave pattern. (Don't quote me on the material or dill as
that was a long time ago when I was not as attentive to womans work as I
should have been.) The material should be washable and not attractive to
bees. I am sure that if you look back 50 years you will find pictures and
directions for manfacturing these "Arm Gators" or bee keepers arm garters,
bee gauntlets, or what ever they were called.
 
Elastic was sawn into the top and bottom and the bottom was fashoned so
that your thumb stuck stuck out a hole and your fingers out another. The
wrist and palm of the hand were well protected. These were excellent for
working queens when full heavy gloves do get in the way.
 
One thing at least in many experiences the swelling from bee stings is
normal and will dissaper with more bee stings. Also goes away the itching
of the palms and soles of the feet with dramatic tempature changes like
going swiming on a hot summers afternoon, but this seems to  take longer to
go away then the swelling.
 
I learned early that I could not go to school with my eyes closed from a
bee sting on the face and used that many times to get a day out of school,
mostly on fridays for the long bee keepers week ends. This was one of the
perks of being a young bee keepers apprentince.
 
Hope this helps you with your problem.
 
ttul, the OLd Drone
http://beenet.com
 
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