The Revolution Has Begun

The beekeeping suit is dead, and in this video I'm going to show you how we are going to revolutionize beekeeping inspections going into the 21st century. Wow, that is getting really, really hot. So beekeeping suits haven't evolved for decades, with one exception, the BBwear Ultra Suit. They fixed that, they stopped you being a hot sticky mess at the end of the day, and they stopped you getting stung through the suit. But they left one really important thing out of that upgrade, and they did not touch the veil. Trying to inspect your bees through a veil can be a real challenge. Sometimes it's just impossible to see through the mesh and to actually focus through that mesh. You might be struggling to see the queen, you might miss a swarm cell, you might not be able to see eggs, larvae, or anything at all. Even worse than all of that, if your hive is diseased and you've got, say, AFB or EFB, and you're not able to actually see through the mesh to be able to diagnose those diseases, then you are in real, real trouble. Let's not even talk about if you're wearing glasses, you've got absolutely no chance. So for years I've thought, why can't there be an upgrade to the standard mesh visor? In my mind, it just seems really, really simple. A clear, durable plastic screen that gives you full vision all the way through with no focusing issues whatsoever. Finally, my prayers have been answered and BB Wear have developed the TrueView Hood. And this here is the final design of the TrueView Hood. But it took quite a lot of development to get to this stage. And luckily, BBwear have kept me in the loop all the way through the process. So let's have a look at the developmental stages of this design, because this took a few iterations to make sure they got it 100% right. So this is the first iteration of the design. It's a crescent moon, and as you can see, didn't really work at all. So it was too thin, too flexible. It broke really, really easily. You can see, like, I tried to take it off the Velcro there. And it just didn't work at all. But this was the first attempt, and this was to try and prove that the method would work. Real big problems with this one, but they did not give up there. So when BBWear sent me the next iteration, I thought, that's it, they've definitely nailed it. Nice clear-cut Velcro all the way around the edge, flexible screen like that. I put it on and I immediately got the worst headache ever. The flexibility in the screen just doesn't work at all. It makes it actually probably, if anything, more difficult to focus. because you're getting that diffraction of the light. This one was close, but it was nowhere near a finished product. So the next iteration of the design that came through, for me, in terms of practical use, worked really, really well. There was no fogging up, there was no flexibility in the screen, I could see directly through it, but BB Wear weren't happy with it because of all of these, like, snaggy edges on the outside. And I can kind of see what they're saying there, like, it is a bit snaggy on the outside, it's not a finished polished product. That it gives you a really good idea of the finished product, which is, you know, a removable screen like that. But not only just like a removable screen like that, we've seen removable screens before, but like an actual usable replaceable screen that isn't going to degrade over time and is actually part, a proprietary part of the beekeeping suit. So we come to the final version of the product, barring a very special limited edition version that I will show you at the end that is really, really cool. That has been specifically built for me and for YouTube videos. But in terms of what's available from BBWare, unless you ask them very, very nicely, this is the final finished product. So the plastic screen offers you a clear, unobstructed view of your bees. It's easily removable, it's easily replaceable, but it's done away with any of that snagging because what you do now is you remove it from the inside. But you can see here with the older version, like, it's really, really easy to take it off. To put it back on again, like super super quick. There's no fiddling around. There's no screws. There's nothing like that. It's just a really nice simple Velcro design. So in terms of snagging now, because that Velcro is on the inside, there's no way that you can snag this on anything. Any brambles kind of like your arms, your clothing—it's completely snag free because all of the Velcro is on the inside. The most important bit for me is that the plastic is durable and it is clear. It's really good at resisting scratches, and compared to some of the earlier iterations, like there's no way that you can damage it. You can see it's a really really nice. Solid screen. It's heavy enough to not flex kind of when you're not messing around with it, but it's light enough that it doesn't sag down and kind of pull that veil down. Some of the heavier designs made it kind of fall down a little bit and it took it out of your eyeline. This one here is the correct weight so it doesn't sag and it sits perfectly on your eyeline when you're taking a frame up to actually have a look at it. So because you've still got the mesh all the way around this here, it means that in summer conditions it doesn't steam up. Now if you're going to use this in the middle of the winter, the nature of physics means you might get a little bit of steam in there. But I've tried it in my house, kind of like 22, 23 degrees, doesn't steam up whatsoever, which means that you're able to get that unobstructed view of your bees. Now something that really does make the difference on this one is that it's actually affordable. It's only £20 extra on top of like the normal veil that they do, and you can add it as an option on pretty much all of their suits, and it's only £20 extra. But here's the deal breaker. Say you do break it or damage it or scratch it, kind of after a couple of seasons it gets a little bit dirty or tired and you just wanna replace that little bit there. BB Wet are offering replacements for the screen and the Velcro ready for you just to attach it back on. And the replacements are super, super affordable. They're £6.99 each. I love that they've made it cheap and I love that they've given it the longevity by offering you the spares. So this valve here means that you will no longer miss the swarm cells. You'll no longer miss the larva, the eggs. You'll be able to see signs of EFB. God forbid if you get any in your hive. I'm holding it up like this because I want to be able to see the camera going through it, but let me show you the bespoke version that they've made for me, which is an absolute game changer. So the problem that I had was that I just wasn't able to look you directly in the eyes on the camera and actually see you properly. This full-scale version here means I can do the videos and see directly into the camera. and it gives me like a full view of vision as well. Now if I was going to buy one of these for myself just for beekeeping, I, I wouldn't go for this one. This one is way, way more expensive than the other one, and they won't be offering any replacements on it whatsoever. And you can see, like, I'm talking to you here and there's a tiny little bit of condensation, and it is 6° outside at the moment. So kind of in the middle of the summer, condensation really isn't going to be an issue whatsoever. I guarantee this is the start of something new The revolution has begun. You're going to see tons of people copying this because this really is the best thing that's happened to beekeeping in the last 10 years.