when it's warm and later in the day! as i read your post, i was scraping stingers out of my jeans. i just broke every rule of checking a hive.....1. no smoker 2. cold weather 3. ripped off hat and veil because of bees inside 4. did not run fast enough 5. long hair not tucked under veil 6. Garnier Fructis leave in hair conditioner.
on the bright side, i now know what to use to attract bees into a new hive!
with all of that, i did not get stung. i lost track of how many stingers i pulled out of my clothes :-)