I just saw a video of a woman not wearing any sort of suit or protective clothing moving a whole beehive, and even going as far as scooping up bees with her hands. I always feel like anytime I’m even close to a bee I might get stung. How do they avoid it?
In: Biology
Bees don’t want to sting you. As long as you don’t give them any reason to defend themselves, you (probably) won’t get stung. Beekeepers have years of experience on how to act around an handle bees inn order to minimize the chances of getting stung. And, if they do get stung, they’re so used to it that they barely react.
Bees are surprisingly passive. I frequently garden with them flying all over my plants and as long as I don’t literally grab one or step on one, I don’t get stung. They suit also provides some protection. A bee’s stinger isn’t very long and doesn’t have much penetrating power. Most long-term bee keepers will also say that they don’t really feel the stings after awhile.
There are bees and there are bees.
I’ve had other keepers laugh at my protective gear, but then I get to laugh at them as they run furiously for the barn swatting at my girls.
I’ve been around hives with no gear on at all, next to keepers doing the same thing, moving the bees around with their bare hands. Nobody got stung. But I’ve also stood 30 feet from a hive and literally watched a bee leave it and make a bee-line (now I know where the phrase came from) for my nose…stinger first. Just like a bullet.
But unless I’m working them (or mowing too close to the hive) they are often buzzing around in my workshop with me and everybody is fine.
I had a bee swarm/nest here a couple years ago and distinctly remember the bee keeper getting stung as he was moving the box to his truck.
They learn how to be around bees without scaring them. They avoid making any fast, surprising moves, or noise that would scare the bees. Beekeepers avoid working with bees on cold, cloudy, and windy days, as these conditions can make bees more agitated and increase the chance of being stung. Also, beekeepers sometimes use smoke to make the bees feel ”sleepy” and less likely to sting.
It’s important to remember most animals like bees are defensive, not aggressive. They want to protect the hive and they want to protect themselves. Honeybees are also a domestic animal, they have been bred to be less defensive and easier to work with and if a queen breeds mean workers she gets replaced. So it’s less working with wolves (non-domestic bees and wasps) and more like working with stray dogs.
A lot of the time videos like that are working with swarms. Swarms are where the bees are looking for a new home, so they’re often tired and they have no hive with food and babies to defend, this means they have less to fight for and are much less likely to sting a human.
Third, sometimes beekeepers do get stung, even with protection. Individual bees can decide you’re more of a threat than they’re willing to risk, and often beekeeper protective gear doesn’t protect 100% (like gloves thick enough that a determined bee can’t sting through make it difficult to work with equipment, so most beekeepers use lighter gloves that make it harder for the bees to sting, but not impossible) and beekeepers just accept this, must like people who have cactus as houseplants sometimes get stuck, or gardeners with brambles sometimes get poked by thorns.
I work two hives on my property. I usually wear a hood and gloves, but not a suit. I get stung very occasionally, but like another poster said, I know not to approach them on windy or cloudy days, and I am very quiet and light handed when working with them. I generously use a smoker, which helps keep them calm. I’m used to the stings, also. They aren’t fun, but they aren’t debilitating. I love the honey they produce, and they help pollinate my flowers.
Beekeepers do get stung, but the gentler you are when working with a hive, the less defensive the bees will feel. On the other hand, the more their hive gets jostled, the more likely they are to sting, which makes sense, since a jostled hive might mean a hungry bear. So basically, beekeepers try not to act like a bear that’s coming to wreck the bees’ stuff.
Experience. Honey bees tend to be friendly or at least they don’t want to sting, other similar looking insects like wasps will sting you out of spite.
We put in a hive at work, I’ve helped out several times. Honeybees are pretty chill. We wore suits to get the honey out, but even then I didn’t see any bees really trying to sting anyone. I’d go right up to it to check them out occasionally, never an issue. Even one that got slightly stuck in my hair didn’t sting my hand when I brushed her out.
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