Some beekeepers wear veils others don't, there is no right or wrong but there is common sense It doesn't make you any less of a beekeeper wearing a veil, and for those without veils it does not make you any more of a beekeeper, PPE has existed for years for a reason. At the end of the day we work with animals that could cause a severe allergic reaction and in some cases death, although it's incredibly rare to be deadly allergic to bees, when they sting a pheromone is released and when the other bees smell it they go into attack mode, like all animals bee’s can switch in a matter of seconds. Walking around an apiary veil-free doing jobs is different to handling the bees without a veil, I know I could inspect my hives without a veil and be ok but I also know that animals are unpredictable and shit happens, we have to give honeybees respect. You don't tack a horse up and think it's ok I won't fall off today I won't wear a helmet, you don't go to work and think I'm not going to drop anything heavy on my foot today I won't wear my steel toe caps, it's common sense right? I know of a lot of beekeepers who have kept bees for years without any problems but have now developed serious reactions to stings, with some having to give up beekeeping altogether because the risk has become too high. As beekeepers who wear PPE (Admittedly at times minimal, I do wear shorts and a t-shirt with just a veil sometimes, it gets a tad warm in those suits) stings still happen not often but it does, although the suits offer some level of protection, the bees can sting through those suits if they want to and boy have I met some angry bees before. Accidents happen, lapses in concentration, there's a gap in your zipper or there's a hole in your veil and one gets in. I had a bee on the inside of my veil once, it got caught up in the hood of my hoody and stung my neck, I left the apiary to remove the sting, only I wasn't far enough away from the apiary and more got in, I've never had one on the inside of my veil since.
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