I often wear nitrile gloves in the bee yard. I prefer these over the thicker lambskin gloves worn by many new beekeepers, because nitrile gives you infinitely more dexterity and “hive feel” by comparison. Sure, the bees can sting through the nitrile, but they don’t too often and the occasional sting is worth the upside, at least for me. The biggest problem I run into with the nitrile (or vinyl or rubber) gloves is that they can tear, and when that happens good luck putting on a new glove if it’s hot outside. Nitrile gloves are nearly impossible to pull onto a sweaty hand. Or even a slightly moist hand. Sometimes humidity alone can make it difficult to cinch a glove up without the rubber digits hanging halfway off my fingers.
I use baby powder to easily slip on nitrile gloves in the bee yard
But there’s an easy and cheap fix for this. Just keep a bottle of baby powder in your bee kit. When you need to put on a glove, douse your hand in the powder and rub it around, being sure to get between the fingers. Then the glove will slide up your hand nearly effortlessly. Plus this helps keep your hands dry and delays the onset “bathtub fingers.” Some gloves come pre-coated in powder, but I’ve found those are made more for doctors in air conditioned hospitals than for beekeepers dripping with sweat. There’s just not enough powder to overcome the amount of moisture we’re dealing with.
A travel-size bottle of baby powder goes a long way, and they’re so cheap and small that I keep them stashed wherever I have nitrile gloves—the bee kit, the garage, and the workshop. Just in case I need to glove up on a warm day.