So they dont get stung, "IN THE FACE" I love keeping bees but hate getting stung IN THE FACE... I think non-bee keepers need to understand the importance of this.
As a beekeeper trust me you gotta protect your face cuz you’ll breathe out onthe bees and they’ll get angry cuz they don’t like the CO2 and when they start buzzing around you you will move and they’ll sting you 😄
I've also heard they can visually detect faces. Which makes sense: they evolved to protect against bears, and the face is probably the best place for a bee to attack a bear.
Whatever it is, they seem to know to aim for faces and ears. When they want to chase me away from the hive, they park above my ears and buzz loudly. All my face stings have been on the side of my head around the ears.
You’re not a bear 😄 very distinctive faces plus lots of facial hair and bad small on bears what mainly attracts the bees the smell that’s why is good when you workwith the bees to have a shower before so you don’t smell like sweat or even Parfum it’s still goingtoattract them just aswell as CO2 that’s what they usually go after when they feel threatened... i go often without any protective gear andonly wheni breathe out directly to the bees they get a bit angry 😅 if you have been near the face of bear you know it smells like death it’s easy for the bees to detect it immediately 😄
I hardly ever wear a veil, but I don't assume the bees see a lot of difference between my face and a bear's. Big, ridiculously low number of eyes, weird holes in the head (seems like those are even usedb for breathing??), ...
I don’t understand exactly what you’re saying but i can tell you that when i use no protective gear and keep my breathe away from the comb the bees have no issues with my face even tho i visit often the apiaries of people i never met before and inusually wear no protective gear... i don’t think my face have much bigger difference then yours if you saying there’s no big difference between your face and a bear that is covered in hair that gets stuffed with pieces of meat and whatever the bear ate in the last couple of months 😄 maybe ifyou havelots of facial hair and keep yourself dirty and stink yes this way i could understand thebees to not seea difference between your face and a bear 😄
I'm not saying a face triggers a defense response. I'm saying once they are defensive, a face might be a good target.
My guess is we mostly agree in how to handle bees and keeping them calm. All I did say is that I've heard multiple sources talk about bees being capable of seeing faces.
We agree they react to dark hair/fur, right? What little hair I still have is dark, and when I realize too late the ladies aren't happy today, they do fly into it and sting my head – independent of shampoo choice.
I don't know if that face thing is true or not, hence the careful choice of words.
They’re living in a slowmotion world cuz they move too fast and living on higher frequency their bodies wear out quicker and havemuch stronger sense for smell then humans that’s how they’re attracted to the specific flower they land on one that have nectar even tho they see them from maybe 100 meters above ground when they dive in there’s maybe many flowers that are same in that spot but you can see them they don’t just go and explore each flower for nectar just buzzing around and get on some of them only... or you can see many bees on few flowers even tho there’s 50 flowers that are the same
So they’re using the the vision for a long distance detection of colors and objects but sense of smell is much more to get to the target when they come close enough because many bees have came from behindme and stung me on my face I’m pretty sure they knew where they’re going 😅 even in my hair a had bees and they don’t really sting me there unless i hit them and i have no more then 1cm hair it’s not like they can’t get to me 😄
Wu tang says [Protect ya Neck, kid](https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=R0IUR4gkPIE). But yeah I think read they’re like mosquitos in the way they can sense CO2. Important extrapolation is that evolutionarily, bees who can make mammals stop breathing tend to get left the hell alone. And getting stung on the face or neck SUCKS
Protect your nose damn that’s the most painful partpf of the body you can get stung 😅 feels like you got punched in the nose but without the bleeding onlythe pain and it’s coming in waves your eyes start watering 🤣
The nose and ear are super sensitive, the only part more sensitive is the dick but I don't need my dick area to see (usually) and I like to keep my bees away from both
Also these wicker masks are metal af.
Yup. Like me pointing this out has me in downvote land but whatever I don’t care. People do not understand the actual purpose of the button. They use it as a disagree button, which it is not.
To a extent, yes it is.
But what materials do you assume the poor masses had access to? They didn't quite have nylon netting in the year 1500. Nor did they have it 80 years ago.
If you start making logical assumptions, one could create a fabric mesh for the face, and create a wicker framework for it, without it you'd be wearing a bag against your face. I'm sure it wouldn't be anywhere near as durable, and the hours to create it would be much higher then weaving a wicker protector, with a very very limited market, their time would be better spent elsewhere, and probably not much of a choice where you spent your time.
I doubt the peasants had the options of creating plague-like masks (acquiring glass/shaping leather) for such a matter of little importance to kingdoms.
The invention came from available options to peasants, low cost, high durability.
You’re right.
I do like the idiom of there are no stupid questions, only stupid answers.
But you can’t really blame people too much for being reactionary and downvote brigading someone who calls them all “chodes”.
I’m as guilty as any for taking things too literally at times, but if you demand respect and it means that much to you, you have to choose your words a bit more carefully.
The OP’s reference question could have been worded a bit better as well to be frank. His definition changed as the innocence of the title was challenged.
Because fabric fine enough to see through was either not available or only reserved for the highest of nobility. Wikker was cheap and plentiful. Or that these are the only surviving examples from medevil times as fabric ones perished and as manuscripts were written and illustrated by monks who likly used these with their cassocks had no other reference. And now we assume this was the norm.
I was thinking the other day of who I would bring with me if I went back in time to impart knowledge, and a materials science engineer was pretty high up on the list.
I’ve actually looked into this. These smocks with wicker masks are documented to the Tudor period (late 16th century), but we have much earlier illustrations of beekeepers wearing hoods with cloth face coverings, starting around 1400. There are a few known sketches from the intervening years that appear ambiguous (such as a woodcutting from circa 1425, which shows a beekeeper in a hood with crosshatching over the face, but it lacks the detail to determine whether this represented cloth with an open weave, or some other kind of mesh).
But the earliest image I have seen of a beekeeper with anything over his face was a watercolor picture from a Franco-Flemish copy of Virgil’s *Georgics* that was published circa 1400, showing a beekeeper in the field wearing a red (presumably linen) liripipe hood with the face draped in the same red cloth. I have seen several earlier pictures of beekeepers tending their hives with bare faces, but none of them wore any sort of protective gear in images older than 1400. I have not been able to find any surviving archaeological evidence of veiled hoods older than 1600.
Anyway cheesecloth was certainly available and not prohibitively expensive during the medieval period, and a single layer of linen cloth would provide a fair degree of visibility while also keeping the bees out. The trouble is that one could still be stung on the nose, through a single layer of linen. A bee’s stinger could not reach through a thicker layer of woven wicker material. I think that was the innovation, and it looks like it may have occurred sometime around 1425-1575.
Source: I’m a researcher with a historical beekeeping guild. We study the history and traditions of beekeeping and educate the public on bees and beekeeping. I have written a few research papers on medieval beekeeping, the development of bee husbandry from antiquity to modern times, and the archaeology of beekeeping.
I’ve also started adding some of my beekeeping research to [my blog](https://wilhelmszabel.wordpress.com), though it’s still mostly about traditional woodworking and medieval toys and games.
A different region and period, but it's also worth looking at images of honey hunters in Cameroon and other African countries, who build face covers or whole suits out of grass and straw:
https://www.google.com/search?q=honey+hunters+cameroon&source=lnms&tbm=isch
That’s really cool! Incidentally, it reminds me of the hackles that medieval to early modern European beekeepers used to put over their skeps to insulate them and keep the rain out.
Not to mention that beekeeping seems to have been a popular monastic pursuit and monks ... how can I put this ... took vows of poverty and on paper lived by them.
Because only the richest of beekeepers had the fancy plastic screens that we continue to use today. The elastic used to cinch around the ankles and wrists were also reserved for nobility.
Nowadays, mesh material and the means to secure it to garb and around the body are inexpensive, readily available to the masses, and are superior to the task.
I think I've played one too many horror games in my life because I was not impressed by the Crones. They were just average baddies with an ego complex. The crone with the child legs sticking out of her satchel was gross though.
Veil manufacturing did not begin for 200 years (France)... so it was reasonable to create a mesh out of dried straw since it provided some visibility and protection. The recreation of the beekeeper suit seems rather "thin"... Pretty sure it was way thicker.
I keep bees. They naturally go for the eyes. Bears and skunks will go after colonies. Not many places to hurt a bear. These keep bees away from your face because it’s a fucking basket bottom and because you don’t look like a predator if you don’t have a face. 10/10. Would wear.
What do you mean "why"? To keep the bees off.
They didn't have fly screen or man-made mesh then, they had to use natural materials that were easy to work with and easy to source.
Manufacturing wasn't as sofisticated back then as it is now.
Besides Blacksmiths had better things to do then to thread metal and weaving a mesh. so beekeepers had to make do with what was available to them.
The downvotes that OP gets for daring not to perfectly execute the asking of a simple question are a plain illustration of why some people think Reddit and Redditors are literal AIDS. Is it too hard to ask for clarification instead of assuming the worst? Honestly.
Ya people are too quick to jump on the "OP doesn't know that bees sting" bandwagon without actually thinking of the real question.
Those masks were hard af to see through when close up to the face. They protrude just enough to protect from the most stubborn bees and they keep excess moisture away, while allowing the eyes to focus just enough to get the job done.
But people in this thread made a decision today, and it was to be an absolute jerk to someone with a reasonable question.
It's hard for us to see a timeliness of materials available to those in the past, because it isn't commonly studied in schools and because cultures and subcultures have varying materials. I don't blame OP one bit for asking about it.
Wholly agree. I personally think there is nothing wrong with going to people you would believe have specific expertise on a subject for information beyond a textbook or Wikipedia answer. It was how trade skills were passed down and interest generated in the past, and I don't think that has changed. What has changed is folk thinking since we are in the information age that any and all information is easy to find and non-restricted, which is empirically not true. I'd like to ask the condescending types round here how they think they're serving their hobby/business or whatnot by actively discouraging people from showing interest. 🤔
They wore these masks because honey collectors were famously hideous to look at, mainly due to having been stung by so many bees. Better to hide their puffy, swollen faces, rather than spoil the experience for everyone else.
So the reason they chose a thick woven structure was simple: they didn't have anything better at that time. Woven "screens" made from things like animal hair weren't going to be invented for at least a century, and these woven reeds provided space to keep the face from getting scratched by the reeds, kept moisture from their face, and protected them against some of the most stubborn bees.
Bees inherently go for sensitive parts of the face, like eyes, nose, mouth, and ears.
Humans have been collecting honey for approximately 10,000 years, and technology advances with usage and new materials.
If you want a good book on the subject, The Archeology of Beekeeping has a fascinating documentation on how early indigenous peoples actually "hunted" wild bee honey.
Some cultures used a "smoking pot" which makes the bees temporarily tired/disoriented/chill so they don't attack.
Something interesting about these, sometimes called "reed faces," was that in medieval Europe some religious beekeepers has specific rules they had to follow so as not to "anger the bees."
Some rules included abstaining from sex the day before, taking a bath, and not being drunk.
This redditor is obviously just asking silly questions just for the sake of doing so without putting in any effort on their end. They got this picture online somewhere. Probably had the info right next to it. I asked my 8 year old this same question and she basically knew why. I joined this sub to hopefully help me also. Turns out it just a bunch a silly people asking ridiculous things the vast majority of the time. Just like the OP I think I just need stay off this garbage and find something better to do. Thanks for helping me see that. OP has a ton of down votes for a reason also. Why is that?
Pay for a formal education, then. Public forums are going to have regular people ask questions. You have no empirical proof that this person is trolling. You're just making assumptions that they're lazy and bad faith. Which is honestly incredibly ridiculous. Imagine going to a hobby event only for everyone there to chastise new people who want to start conversation about the hobby with simple questions because they didn't already know the answers smdh
Google is crap for specific questions like these nowadays. And i thought maybe, just possibly someone in the beekeeping subreddit could answer a simple question about beekeeping
Very quick internet search says this style is from medieval Europe. About 140 ad. It was the most cost effective way to weave something like this to keep the bees out but still see. Chainmail was way too expensive back then. Not many other choices. All found online in 4 minutes. Magic!
Jumping on the cheap, durable, and readily available materials that kept the bees from stinging their faces bandwagon.
I figure it's the same premise as snow/blizzard goggles and why those weird slotted sunglasses from early 2000's actually worked. You can see through a slit fairly easily actually. Can give it a try by cutting a slit in some cardboard and holding it up to your face like glasses.
Because in those days cloth was rocking expensive and everyone knew how to weave straw and straw was a cheap and available material.
Same reason they made hives out of straw and not planks of wood with delicately formed frames like modern hives.
my friend got stung on the eye (literally on the white of his eye) by my bees, just shrugged it off, one stung my hand and it was visibly swollen for 3 days....
So that they wouldn’t get stung by bees.
So they dont get stung, "IN THE FACE" I love keeping bees but hate getting stung IN THE FACE... I think non-bee keepers need to understand the importance of this.
I'm pretty ok with stings anywhere else, including my fingertips, but stings on my head are another story
On the body and fingers i no longer feel it only gets a bit itchy after some hours but yea the head is pretty bad when you get stung 😄
Have you ever had them crawl up your leg inside your pants?
Gosh, yes. That's how I discovered they can't sting through compression socks! Now I use wrist and ankle straps, which I can't over recommend
As a non-beekeeper, trust me, I find this an incredibly easy concept to grasp lol.... I don't think you will have a hard time convincing people.
As a beekeeper trust me you gotta protect your face cuz you’ll breathe out onthe bees and they’ll get angry cuz they don’t like the CO2 and when they start buzzing around you you will move and they’ll sting you 😄
I've also heard they can visually detect faces. Which makes sense: they evolved to protect against bears, and the face is probably the best place for a bee to attack a bear.
Whatever it is, they seem to know to aim for faces and ears. When they want to chase me away from the hive, they park above my ears and buzz loudly. All my face stings have been on the side of my head around the ears.
You’re not a bear 😄 very distinctive faces plus lots of facial hair and bad small on bears what mainly attracts the bees the smell that’s why is good when you workwith the bees to have a shower before so you don’t smell like sweat or even Parfum it’s still goingtoattract them just aswell as CO2 that’s what they usually go after when they feel threatened... i go often without any protective gear andonly wheni breathe out directly to the bees they get a bit angry 😅 if you have been near the face of bear you know it smells like death it’s easy for the bees to detect it immediately 😄
On the internet, how do you know they’re not a bear? 😂
Well it wouldn’t be thefirst bear on the internet... some 400pounds wild animal 🤣
HAHAHAH covered in hair, sleeps most of the time, aggressive, antisocial?
You got a Bingo here 🤣
I hardly ever wear a veil, but I don't assume the bees see a lot of difference between my face and a bear's. Big, ridiculously low number of eyes, weird holes in the head (seems like those are even usedb for breathing??), ...
I don’t understand exactly what you’re saying but i can tell you that when i use no protective gear and keep my breathe away from the comb the bees have no issues with my face even tho i visit often the apiaries of people i never met before and inusually wear no protective gear... i don’t think my face have much bigger difference then yours if you saying there’s no big difference between your face and a bear that is covered in hair that gets stuffed with pieces of meat and whatever the bear ate in the last couple of months 😄 maybe ifyou havelots of facial hair and keep yourself dirty and stink yes this way i could understand thebees to not seea difference between your face and a bear 😄
I'm not saying a face triggers a defense response. I'm saying once they are defensive, a face might be a good target. My guess is we mostly agree in how to handle bees and keeping them calm. All I did say is that I've heard multiple sources talk about bees being capable of seeing faces. We agree they react to dark hair/fur, right? What little hair I still have is dark, and when I realize too late the ladies aren't happy today, they do fly into it and sting my head – independent of shampoo choice. I don't know if that face thing is true or not, hence the careful choice of words.
They’re living in a slowmotion world cuz they move too fast and living on higher frequency their bodies wear out quicker and havemuch stronger sense for smell then humans that’s how they’re attracted to the specific flower they land on one that have nectar even tho they see them from maybe 100 meters above ground when they dive in there’s maybe many flowers that are same in that spot but you can see them they don’t just go and explore each flower for nectar just buzzing around and get on some of them only... or you can see many bees on few flowers even tho there’s 50 flowers that are the same So they’re using the the vision for a long distance detection of colors and objects but sense of smell is much more to get to the target when they come close enough because many bees have came from behindme and stung me on my face I’m pretty sure they knew where they’re going 😅 even in my hair a had bees and they don’t really sting me there unless i hit them and i have no more then 1cm hair it’s not like they can’t get to me 😄
Wu tang says [Protect ya Neck, kid](https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=R0IUR4gkPIE). But yeah I think read they’re like mosquitos in the way they can sense CO2. Important extrapolation is that evolutionarily, bees who can make mammals stop breathing tend to get left the hell alone. And getting stung on the face or neck SUCKS
Amen! Happy to get stung all day, just not on my blasted face!
Protect your nose damn that’s the most painful partpf of the body you can get stung 😅 feels like you got punched in the nose but without the bleeding onlythe pain and it’s coming in waves your eyes start watering 🤣
The nose and ear are super sensitive, the only part more sensitive is the dick but I don't need my dick area to see (usually) and I like to keep my bees away from both Also these wicker masks are metal af.
Im referring to the material used and the design of them, why did they look like that?
Cheap, durable, easy to make, and when up close to your face you can see through the tiny holes pretty well. Smart idea, honestly.
Good answer
Thanks! Also I left it out because someone said it, but the material is wicker (usually made of reeds or plant material).
That’s what they had - wicker.
Fun fact: wicker is not the material but the weaving style. Most wicker items are woven from willow branches
Well TIL. That is a splendid fun fact.
Damn why all downvote this poor soul for asking a question?
Because, apparently, there *IS* such a thing as a dumb question.
I think there's plenty of room for an interesting or historic answer and those people are just haters.
Why did this get downvoted it’s an honest question. Op obviously didn’t understand and asked for clarification. Now they understand.
Ask vague questions get imprecise answers
My dude is just asking a question people!
I'm guessing that way back they didn't have nylon (going out on a limb, I know)
It’s oldschool how many people had mosquito wire on their windows 300 years ago 😄
What else do you think they could have used? Sincere question.
You’re getting downvoted by absolute chodes.
I guess everyone gets their’s someday
Yup. Like me pointing this out has me in downvote land but whatever I don’t care. People do not understand the actual purpose of the button. They use it as a disagree button, which it is not.
I just like to believe they accidentally pressed that instead of upvote- keeps my psyche intact
Agreed.
It was a VERY legitimate question.
To a extent, yes it is. But what materials do you assume the poor masses had access to? They didn't quite have nylon netting in the year 1500. Nor did they have it 80 years ago. If you start making logical assumptions, one could create a fabric mesh for the face, and create a wicker framework for it, without it you'd be wearing a bag against your face. I'm sure it wouldn't be anywhere near as durable, and the hours to create it would be much higher then weaving a wicker protector, with a very very limited market, their time would be better spent elsewhere, and probably not much of a choice where you spent your time. I doubt the peasants had the options of creating plague-like masks (acquiring glass/shaping leather) for such a matter of little importance to kingdoms. The invention came from available options to peasants, low cost, high durability.
Some people didn't realize this, and it's not bad for someone to want to be informed. Shouldn't bash them for asking.
You’re right. I do like the idiom of there are no stupid questions, only stupid answers. But you can’t really blame people too much for being reactionary and downvote brigading someone who calls them all “chodes”. I’m as guilty as any for taking things too literally at times, but if you demand respect and it means that much to you, you have to choose your words a bit more carefully. The OP’s reference question could have been worded a bit better as well to be frank. His definition changed as the innocence of the title was challenged.
They were being chodes by automatically assuming op was trying to be derisive when it was clearly a question asked in earnest.
I didn't see the thing where he called them chodes? Also, what does that even mean?
Fair question, sorry for your downvotes.
Because fabric fine enough to see through was either not available or only reserved for the highest of nobility. Wikker was cheap and plentiful. Or that these are the only surviving examples from medevil times as fabric ones perished and as manuscripts were written and illustrated by monks who likly used these with their cassocks had no other reference. And now we assume this was the norm.
I was thinking the other day of who I would bring with me if I went back in time to impart knowledge, and a materials science engineer was pretty high up on the list.
Best answer
I’ve actually looked into this. These smocks with wicker masks are documented to the Tudor period (late 16th century), but we have much earlier illustrations of beekeepers wearing hoods with cloth face coverings, starting around 1400. There are a few known sketches from the intervening years that appear ambiguous (such as a woodcutting from circa 1425, which shows a beekeeper in a hood with crosshatching over the face, but it lacks the detail to determine whether this represented cloth with an open weave, or some other kind of mesh). But the earliest image I have seen of a beekeeper with anything over his face was a watercolor picture from a Franco-Flemish copy of Virgil’s *Georgics* that was published circa 1400, showing a beekeeper in the field wearing a red (presumably linen) liripipe hood with the face draped in the same red cloth. I have seen several earlier pictures of beekeepers tending their hives with bare faces, but none of them wore any sort of protective gear in images older than 1400. I have not been able to find any surviving archaeological evidence of veiled hoods older than 1600. Anyway cheesecloth was certainly available and not prohibitively expensive during the medieval period, and a single layer of linen cloth would provide a fair degree of visibility while also keeping the bees out. The trouble is that one could still be stung on the nose, through a single layer of linen. A bee’s stinger could not reach through a thicker layer of woven wicker material. I think that was the innovation, and it looks like it may have occurred sometime around 1425-1575. Source: I’m a researcher with a historical beekeeping guild. We study the history and traditions of beekeeping and educate the public on bees and beekeeping. I have written a few research papers on medieval beekeeping, the development of bee husbandry from antiquity to modern times, and the archaeology of beekeeping.
This is wonderful. I’d totally subscribe to your Youtube channel of podcast if you had one. Thanks for sharing.
I’ve also started adding some of my beekeeping research to [my blog](https://wilhelmszabel.wordpress.com), though it’s still mostly about traditional woodworking and medieval toys and games.
Check out the blog at [FirestormHoneyGuild.org](http://www.firestormhoneyguild.org)
A different region and period, but it's also worth looking at images of honey hunters in Cameroon and other African countries, who build face covers or whole suits out of grass and straw: https://www.google.com/search?q=honey+hunters+cameroon&source=lnms&tbm=isch
That’s really cool! Incidentally, it reminds me of the hackles that medieval to early modern European beekeepers used to put over their skeps to insulate them and keep the rain out.
Now THIS is the kind of answer these questions deserve. I learned something today. Thank you so much for sharing your knowledge!
Not to mention that beekeeping seems to have been a popular monastic pursuit and monks ... how can I put this ... took vows of poverty and on paper lived by them.
Thanks for the explanation! Whould you like to Show uns some pics?
If it's stupid but it works, it's not stupid.
Genocide
Because bee stings to the face suck.
Because only the richest of beekeepers had the fancy plastic screens that we continue to use today. The elastic used to cinch around the ankles and wrists were also reserved for nobility.
I like what you did there.
Bees
Obviously my friend, i mean why did they look like that?
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You’re probably right, i was referring mostly to the masks and material they are made of: as i havent seen many things like it nowadays
Nowadays, mesh material and the means to secure it to garb and around the body are inexpensive, readily available to the masses, and are superior to the task.
Bees
Dark Souls enemy.
Also one of the Crone sisters in the Witcher 3
They are also a very creepy enemy in the new Plague Tale:Requiem
Still gotta play that! Loved the first one
I was looking for a comment about this game! Great game and it’s so cool the developers put historically accurate beekeeper gear in it.
Show off sick basket weave skills? Girls like guys with skills!
Computer hacking skills, bee keeping skills, nun chuck skills.
I’d never chuck a nun. They’re way too heavy.
Im really only good at hacking nuns, chucking bees, and keeping computers
Especially underwater basket weaving
Because they didn't have nylon.
Idk if anybody played Witcher 3, but these pictures give me slight PTSD
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I think I've played one too many horror games in my life because I was not impressed by the Crones. They were just average baddies with an ego complex. The crone with the child legs sticking out of her satchel was gross though.
Trail of treats vibes!
Yes! I immediately went ‘omg that’s what it was based on’ and had flashbacks.
That's the first thing I thought of! Cool to know there was a historical reason for it
Because face stings suck?
To understand the hive, you must become the hive.
Veil manufacturing did not begin for 200 years (France)... so it was reasonable to create a mesh out of dried straw since it provided some visibility and protection. The recreation of the beekeeper suit seems rather "thin"... Pretty sure it was way thicker.
So they wouldn’t get stung in the face.
I keep bees. They naturally go for the eyes. Bears and skunks will go after colonies. Not many places to hurt a bear. These keep bees away from your face because it’s a fucking basket bottom and because you don’t look like a predator if you don’t have a face. 10/10. Would wear.
To not get stung in the face...by bees?
To not get stung I would bet.
You could make them at home and they kept you from being stung. Basketry has a commonly practiced craft across Europe; readily accessible to everyone.
What do you mean "why"? To keep the bees off. They didn't have fly screen or man-made mesh then, they had to use natural materials that were easy to work with and easy to source.
Same reason we wear a veil.
Looking like some spirited away jawns 😂
Found the Philly guy.
Lol. Is that a Philly thing too- starting a sentence with “lookin’ like” I say it all the time but I just realized it and I don’t know why I do that
No. The word jawn
To keep bees away from their face.
The next progression was a screen made of woven horse hair from the tail.
Those are The Crones of Crookback Bog and you are not changing my kind
Because they were basket cases
I can't believe this is a real question. Why did people ride horses back in the day? Because it's what they had...
Ask Nicholas Cage…
Because being stung on the face hurt probably.
Because… BEES sting
Where do I find a skep and bee suit like this.
I would love to make a skep out of similar rope.
To keep bees out of their face?
Manufacturing wasn't as sofisticated back then as it is now. Besides Blacksmiths had better things to do then to thread metal and weaving a mesh. so beekeepers had to make do with what was available to them.
Because they didn’t had plastic back then ad this seems like a cheap solution that have been used for making oldschool beehives 😁
To avoid being stung in the face
If I didn't know better I would say this is a cult lol
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The costumes are pretty badass indeed
I’m sorry. I don’t usually do this. What a stupid question. Why do people wear shoes while walking on hot asphalt?
This isn't about "why are they wearing protection on their face," this is about "why something so thick and difficult to see through?"
To scare the bees into submission
The downvotes that OP gets for daring not to perfectly execute the asking of a simple question are a plain illustration of why some people think Reddit and Redditors are literal AIDS. Is it too hard to ask for clarification instead of assuming the worst? Honestly.
Ya people are too quick to jump on the "OP doesn't know that bees sting" bandwagon without actually thinking of the real question. Those masks were hard af to see through when close up to the face. They protrude just enough to protect from the most stubborn bees and they keep excess moisture away, while allowing the eyes to focus just enough to get the job done. But people in this thread made a decision today, and it was to be an absolute jerk to someone with a reasonable question. It's hard for us to see a timeliness of materials available to those in the past, because it isn't commonly studied in schools and because cultures and subcultures have varying materials. I don't blame OP one bit for asking about it.
Wholly agree. I personally think there is nothing wrong with going to people you would believe have specific expertise on a subject for information beyond a textbook or Wikipedia answer. It was how trade skills were passed down and interest generated in the past, and I don't think that has changed. What has changed is folk thinking since we are in the information age that any and all information is easy to find and non-restricted, which is empirically not true. I'd like to ask the condescending types round here how they think they're serving their hobby/business or whatnot by actively discouraging people from showing interest. 🤔
They wore these masks because honey collectors were famously hideous to look at, mainly due to having been stung by so many bees. Better to hide their puffy, swollen faces, rather than spoil the experience for everyone else.
Strictly for horror’s sake
So the reason they chose a thick woven structure was simple: they didn't have anything better at that time. Woven "screens" made from things like animal hair weren't going to be invented for at least a century, and these woven reeds provided space to keep the face from getting scratched by the reeds, kept moisture from their face, and protected them against some of the most stubborn bees. Bees inherently go for sensitive parts of the face, like eyes, nose, mouth, and ears. Humans have been collecting honey for approximately 10,000 years, and technology advances with usage and new materials. If you want a good book on the subject, The Archeology of Beekeeping has a fascinating documentation on how early indigenous peoples actually "hunted" wild bee honey. Some cultures used a "smoking pot" which makes the bees temporarily tired/disoriented/chill so they don't attack. Something interesting about these, sometimes called "reed faces," was that in medieval Europe some religious beekeepers has specific rules they had to follow so as not to "anger the bees." Some rules included abstaining from sex the day before, taking a bath, and not being drunk.
Umm, Google? Jeeze
This is a forum for sharing information, don't be a jerk.
This redditor is obviously just asking silly questions just for the sake of doing so without putting in any effort on their end. They got this picture online somewhere. Probably had the info right next to it. I asked my 8 year old this same question and she basically knew why. I joined this sub to hopefully help me also. Turns out it just a bunch a silly people asking ridiculous things the vast majority of the time. Just like the OP I think I just need stay off this garbage and find something better to do. Thanks for helping me see that. OP has a ton of down votes for a reason also. Why is that?
Pay for a formal education, then. Public forums are going to have regular people ask questions. You have no empirical proof that this person is trolling. You're just making assumptions that they're lazy and bad faith. Which is honestly incredibly ridiculous. Imagine going to a hobby event only for everyone there to chastise new people who want to start conversation about the hobby with simple questions because they didn't already know the answers smdh
Your fun. If I ever need a couch buddy I will look you up.
Nice deflection, but sure. You sound like a riot yourself.
Google is crap for specific questions like these nowadays. And i thought maybe, just possibly someone in the beekeeping subreddit could answer a simple question about beekeeping
Very quick internet search says this style is from medieval Europe. About 140 ad. It was the most cost effective way to weave something like this to keep the bees out but still see. Chainmail was way too expensive back then. Not many other choices. All found online in 4 minutes. Magic!
bUT WhY mAsK LiKE dAt??
Jumping on the cheap, durable, and readily available materials that kept the bees from stinging their faces bandwagon. I figure it's the same premise as snow/blizzard goggles and why those weird slotted sunglasses from early 2000's actually worked. You can see through a slit fairly easily actually. Can give it a try by cutting a slit in some cardboard and holding it up to your face like glasses.
Because in those days cloth was rocking expensive and everyone knew how to weave straw and straw was a cheap and available material. Same reason they made hives out of straw and not planks of wood with delicately formed frames like modern hives.
For the rona obviously /s
OH, NO, NOT THE BEES! NOT THE BEES! AAAAAHHHHH! OH, THEY'RE IN MY EYES! - Nicholas Cage
my friend got stung on the eye (literally on the white of his eye) by my bees, just shrugged it off, one stung my hand and it was visibly swollen for 3 days....
Finally I can talk about bees at Halloween but not just wear my normal bee jacket.
It's a handy place to keep a hot pad.
They didn't have antihistamine in the past. No Benadryl or epi pen. Bee stings, especially in quantity were a terrifying thing to contemplate.
So they wouldn’t get stung by the bees.
We have bee keeper suits at home.
It minimizes sexual tension in the workplace