High School Project: Bee Keeping Suit Survey

[Beesuit123]

Hey everyone, we are a team of students from Beaufort High School. For our Engineering Design and Development class (EDD), we have to engineer a solution to a real-world problem. To determine whether our proposed problem is worth solving, we ask you to please fill out our survey--all responses and feedback are appreciated. Thank you!

THE SURVEY: https://forms.gle/rzgACn88UXafWNsE6

[The15thMember]

Welcome to Beemaster, Beaufort students!  I took your survey.  Feel free to ask us any questions outside your survey as well, if you'd like any more information. 

[Salvo]

Hi Beesuit,

I started your survey,... and got bogged down at *How often do you wear a beesuit?*

I ALWAYS wear a veil. Sometimes I'm in shorts and tee shirt. But I ALWAYS wear a veil.

So I got bogged down there.

I have a lightweight cotton gabardine jacket that is very old but still works. I tuck my veil under the jacket collar. I mostly am wearing long trousers such as dungarees (you may have to google that obscure term).

I also have a full suit with integral *fencing* veil made by ULTRA BREEZE. It was expensive years ago when my wife bought it for me. I seldom have to wear that, once or twice a season during harvest at most.

This is a relaxing, fun hobby for me. It is a burden for me to *suit up* every time for maybe just a quick look. I can wait for *meany bees* to settle down a day or two to check something (my bees are seldom mean). Also!!! A beekeeper need not go too *deep* into his or her hives very often.

I mentor, and I am always prepared for just about anything at a mentees hive, but I don't include my full suit in my traveling clothes.

Consider further defining the term *beesuit*. It's not the same for everyone.

Good luck.

Sal

[Terri Yaki]

I don't have any bees yet and never wore a suit so I'm of no use but good luck on your studies.

[Kathyp]

Done

[The15thMember]

Hi Beesuit,

I started your survey,... and got bogged down at *How often do you wear a beesuit?*

I ALWAYS wear a veil. Sometimes I'm in shorts and tee shirt. But I ALWAYS wear a veil.

So I got bogged down there.

I have a lightweight cotton gabardine jacket that is very old but still works. I tuck my veil under the jacket collar. I mostly am wearing long trousers such as dungarees (you may have to google that obscure term).

I also have a full suit with integral *fencing* veil made by ULTRA BREEZE. It was expensive years ago when my wife bought it for me. I seldom have to wear that, once or twice a season during harvest at most.

This is a relaxing, fun hobby for me. It is a burden for me to *suit up* every time for maybe just a quick look. I can wait for *meany bees* to settle down a day or two to check something (my bees are seldom mean). Also!!! A beekeeper need not go too *deep* into his or her hives very often.

I mentor, and I am always prepared for just about anything at a mentees hive, but I don't include my full suit in my traveling clothes.

Consider further defining the term *beesuit*. It's not the same for everyone.

Good luck.

Sal

I personally interpreted "beesuit" to mean either a full suit or jacket.  To me, wearing a veil doesn't constitute suiting up.     

[Michael Bush]

The only way I could see improving the ventilated jacket or suit is to add a fan somewhere for the calm days and maybe a place to put some ice and maybe a way to easily drink water to stay hydrated...

[Ben Framed]

The only way I could see improving the ventilated jacket or suit is to add a fan somewhere for the calm days and maybe a place to put some ice and maybe a way to easily drink water to stay hydrated...

When it?s really hot, I will bring along a power inverter and an extention cord, along with an electric fan specifically for this purpose.  With this set up, along with the breathable jacket or suit, complements the design as air freely flows through, adding a noticeable cooling effect. It?s amazing the difference it makes.

Phillip

[animal]

staying cool/hydrated:
A "cool shirt" is used in auto racing sometimes by guys with more money and less willingness to sweat than me. Good ones cost around 500 bucks and up, but they are SFI certified (to be fire resistant and such). If someone makes a version for applications other than racing, they would be much cheaper. I assume the certification expires and expired ones might be picked up for pennies on the dollar. Nascar surplus is also a way to get neat stuff cheap. The big teams use many things for one race and replace it because so much money is riding on the race that they don't want to risk a failure (I bought an $800 alternator for $35 and it still works great after many years, plus many more things). Someone with more patience than me could also make their own.
Modifying a "cool shirt" might be an idea for some. It's a shirt with capillary tubing stitched into it, a pump, and an ice chest. The thing pumps/recirculates water from the cooler. A smaller cooler rigged as a backpack might make it useful on a bee suit (a tether to a big cooler seems like it would just get in the way). 

On the simpler side, I made a Humpty Dumpty costume for a kid to wear in a play. The egg was styrofoam and used a CPU fan in the middle of the back which ran off AA batteries and a switch imbedded in the chest. Kid was in the thing 2 hours a day for a week and ran the batteries down once after the first day because he forgot to turn it off. Solved that by adding a thermostat and the batteries lasted the rest of the week. Same thing could be done with a bee suit with the addition of a standoff cage in the bee suit between the shoulder blades and cutting an intake in the suit. The irritating little bugger still had to drink a lot of water, though.