Dirty Gloves.

It took many years of the medical profession ignoring the incontrovertible evidence that they should practise simple hygiene procedures at work, such as washing their hands before visiting each patient before they took heed of the information. The British Olympic team have OCD when it comes to hygiene, continually using hand sanitisers when with other athletes; they have it drummed into their brains that it only takes a minor infection to lose a gold (or any other colour) medal. The older bee keepers seem to follow the examples of the surgeons of a few hundred years ago by using dirty gloves, which I consider to be a lack of courtesy, when handling bees in someone else's apiary.

A good pair of chamois leather gloves, though these are not a good pair, are expensive, but impossible to keep both clean and good. Personally, I keep plenty of pairs of marigolds in my kit box; they will all be used eventually. It means that I can lend gloves to anyone visiting my apiary (or anyone else's), and that I can replace my gloves with clean as as they get messy during an apiary visit. My maxim is that, if I wouldn't eat my “jeely piece” wearing my gloves, then I won't use them to handle my bees.

Sadly, the occupant of these gloves is a very experienced and competent bee keeper whose skills I envy.