How to Make a Home Made Bee Suit?
Not everyone has a budget to buy a beekeeping suit, especially in the early stages of the business. Fortunately, there are alternatives for bee suits. One can buy a bee jacket and veil to start their business or make a homemade suit to prevent bee-stung. And once the company starts generating money, you can afford to buy a best beekeeping suit of your own. Let’s have a look at the steps for the latter:
The Shirt
Choose a white shirt preferably made of cotton to make your bee suit. Bees don’t see light colours as a threat to their lives and often stays gentle around this colour. Make sure the shirt is loosely fitted or oversized, and avoid a tight fit shirt.
Remove the buttons from the shirt and collar area. Add a velcro inside the shirt to be used in the place of buttons. Plug the holes using a sewing machine (if available) created by removing buttons so that no bees can pass through them. Similarly, plug the holes and gaps around your sleeves by stitching them.
Attach the velcro to the shirt opening after taking proper measurement. Make sure you sew some velcro pieces around the shirt opening so that it should not come out while wearing the bee suit.
Take proper measurements of your collar and sleeves to stitch velcro around those areas from the inside. Additionally, repeat the process for the outside of the sleeves and collars as well. This will allow you to tighten sleeves and collar depending upon the need.
A sewing machine and ripstop nylon are perfect for helping you with the job.
The Hat
Look out for a cowboy hat with a wide brim that sits perfectly as a base to your beekeeping hat. You need to make sure that the bee jackets with hood (cap) is thick enough to hold the veil but not very thin so that the sewing needle can pass through it. Also, the brim should be stiff and not floppy; otherwise, the veil could come to a lot closer to your skin. Lastly, it should be lightweight to enable you to work long hours, especially during the summers.
Arrange supplies like veil cloth, probably white that is long enough to fit the brim plus goes deep as six inches below the shoulders allowing for the safety distance. Use Nylon or Mesh veil to cover your face and make it 2-layered if the mesh is too thin.
Stitch the veil cloth around the seam of the brim without leaving any gaps in between. Hand sewing may require 2 rounds of stitching to fill the gaps in between the stitching. Make a circular tube around the hat that drapes six inches below your shoulder and doesn’t come too close to your face.
