I want to start off by saying that I am not trying to sell you anything. I do not even recommend one particular brand. The purpose of this blog post is to help you to think of a few things you may not have thought of if you are new to beekeeping.
For the purpose of this post, I will assume that you are planning to wear a jacket as protection, instead of only a veil or going protection free.
I have found that a loose pair of jeans, made from a thick denim, that are a mid-cut, not too high waisted or low waisted, that fit in a comfortable but snug manner around your waist, that are bootcut or straight leg, work the best. I’ll explain.
Bees can sting through a single layer of denim. And those of us who are jacket only wearers take this risk. But there is no reason we have to have our jeans so tight that when they sting through them, they automatically get a deep injection of venom straight into our legs or butt. A surface sting is far less painful and irritating than a deep sting. Loose jeans increase the chance that those stings will be surface only, or maybe only penetrate the layer of denim.
For the same reason, a thick denim is helpful. I’ve worn fairly thick jeans, and also jeans that either are made from a high concentration of spandex, or are just thin from being almost ready to be retired. It is far less painful to be stung through the new, thick denim. The more spandex in the jeans, the more likely they are to be thin and skin tight.
The waist hight matters too. Beekeeping almost inevitably involves bending over. When you bend over, your jacket likely comes up a bit in the back and you don’t want to expose yourself unnecessarily to bees that could be upset. And more concerning still is the potential for trapping them against the top of your jeans and your jacket when you stand back up. High waisted jeans are always a decent option in addition to mid-rise, but keep in mind these will be hotter in the summer months, because of more fabric.
For the same reason, make sure that your jeans fit snuggly around your waist. You don’t need bees in your pants, but of course don’t want the pants too tight so they are uncomfortable to work in!
I wear cowboy boots to work my bees in. I now wear boot-bands so that I can’t get bees crawling under my pant legs, and down my boots. I have only gotten stung once on my ankles for not wearing them in the twelve years of beekeeping when I didn’t have them. All that to say, that straight leg jeans or ideally bootcut jeans work far better than skinny jeans, because they fit down somewhat snuggly over boots.
Remember that bees see dark colors, especially black, as a danger signal, and as a result, sting more frequently. For this reason, a lighter wash is far more ideal than black jeans, or a very dark wash.
It goes without saying, that jeans with holes in them are just asking for trouble when you’re wearing them out in your bee yard. The extra ventilation just isn’t worth it at that point!
Taking all these things into consideration, I personally usually will go to a thrift shop and look for jeans meeting these criteria for my beekeeping jeans. I also like Wrangler’s Willow jeans, but they are somewhat spendy for work jeans. Hopefully this post will give you an inside scoop on what works well for beekeeping jeans, so you won’t have to learn by trial and error like I did.