BBKA Forum

British Beekeepers Association Official Forum 

  • Bee Suits for a School Bee Keeping Project

  • Beginners forum, ask beekeeping related questions and get help from other experienced beekeepers. Please use the Search Feature please to avoid duplicated threads
Beginners forum, ask beekeeping related questions and get help from other experienced beekeepers. Please use the Search Feature please to avoid duplicated threads
 #10451  by Darren@Barney
 02 Apr 2021, 18:39
I need to purchase 8 bee suits for school children aged 13-15. Other schools I have contacted recommend BB Wear and they have given me a price for suits and gloves that comes to just over £1,000. The other firm that comes recommended is 'Simon the Beekeeper' and their prices are about half of those of BB Wear. I have a BB Wear suit myself and the quality is excellent. Clearly I do not want any of the kids to get stung if at all possible and I wonder what the consensus is regarding the quality of suits from Simon the Beekeeper. In all honesty, given the school term, the suits will not see as much wear as they would from those used by a full time bee keeper. Can I get away with paying half price - or will I just end up paying twice? Your thoughts would be appreciated!
 #10452  by MickBBKA
 02 Apr 2021, 19:28
My very first suit is a BB Wear, I have had it for 9 years and it is excellent quality, only had to replace the mesh. I have 2 other suits now that were a 3rd of the price from ebay and can't complain about those either. If its stings you are worried about you can't keep bees without getting stung. The sting proof suits are said to be very good but I do know they are not 100% proof as I have seen someone get stung through one. The best advice I can offer is get them a size bigger so they are baggy to wear.
 #10454  by Patrick
 03 Apr 2021, 00:32
My first BB wear suit is on its third hood, the zip is tired and the material now thin but it’s still going even if now relegated to back up. It’s survived countless washing and plenty of hard work.

I don’t have a StB suit but no reason to believe it’s not fine. I would go for the fencing veil as they are probably more robust. StB look significantly cheaper than half price surely, more like a third?


As the kids are probably not going to be lifting and carrying quite like we would be (or there will be more labour than most of us have access to), they may get away with jeans and a sweatshirt under the suit. So I doubt a sting will get through that and a suit. Maybe this is an occasion for wearing the dreaded calfskin gloves but putting nitriles over them? Otherwise the thick black marigolds or double nitriles are options.

Whilst we may like wearing our old, familiar, yellowing, scuffed suits with a bit of pride, I am not sure many modern teenagers having a go want to be put into vintage stained suits and gloves worn by a dozen other sweaty pupils before them and still in use 15 years later?

I would buy cheaper and cheerfully anticipate refreshing the stock every few years for that group of users.