I like using these gloves, that way I can have a bucket of water ready to clean them if they get messy, and the bees can’t sting you through them. http://www.homedepot.com/p/Grease-Monkey-PVC-Coated-Cleaning-Gloves-Large-X-Large-24203-08/202759384
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For your smoker, once you have given them a few puffs just sit it upwind and the smoke will drift over the hive. Often don’t have to actually smoke again.
As for gloves, they make you clumsy but it takes time to build the confidence to go without them.
Cheers
Rob.
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Hi & thank you Bruce, I should look into those kind of gloves. They don’t come in pink by any chance, do they? just kidding. They would certainly outlast anything else I’ve used.
Personally I would only leave the first frame out for inspection. Taking more out you do risk the Queen and the brood will get chilled. I try to keep hive inspections down to 5 minutes or less, not letting the hive get cold
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Thanks for posting your video Chet. It was good to see another newbie as nervous as me! I always use my gloves and smoke. I haven’t found my queen yet but am hoping to next week when I do my final check before our winter shut down. I hope you enjoy your bees as much as I do and that they reward you with some delicious honey!
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Omg! I feel for you! I didn’t get to go to our last beekeeping class field trip so I felt kind of on my own. I got my Nuc last week and was planning to open my hive for the first time after installing them. I awoke in the middle of the night on day 6 realizing that I didn’t even think to check for my queen when I did the transfer! For all I know she got left out in the rain in the empty cardboard nuc box.
I had a hard time watching you because although I’m just as new to this as you, I wanted to reach out and help you!
Thank you so much for posting this. I didn’t know about twisting as you lift up and I’m sure many of us will have benefited from seeing a worst case scenario when the bottom frames came out with the top ones.
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That happens even years after 
Fabulous. It’s the best bee video I’ve ever seen. Everyone who’s commented knows why. It takes real bravery to do that.
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Nice going Chet… I’ve made my observations/comments on the YouTube channel… they are looking good!
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New beek here!
Really enjoyed and appreciated your video along with your comments.
Great learning experience and a real plus to read the comments from the more skilled and knowledgeable beekeepers! 
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Hi Chet,
well done.
For someone obviously not very experienced you handled the stuck frame really well.
A few tips.
Only leave the first frame out. When your’ve inspectd the second frame, put it where the first frame was, so the gap is between the frames you have inspected, and the ones you have not.
When you get to the end, simply replace the first frame at the last position.
The next time you inspect, start at that end, so the first frame ends up where it was the first time.
(otherwise, if you keep going right to left, you’ll end up moving the brood nest to the side.)
Another little skill to aquire:
When lifting a frame to inspect, knock the bees off. It’s far easier to inspect with less bees in the way.
Also, if you tap most of them into the hive, you’re less likely to carry the queen and drop her in the grass.
To do it, once you have one frame out (the end ones tend to not have brood that needs inspecting anyway) then use the extra space, lift the frame most of the way out, and give it a jerk downwards so that most of the bees fall off into the gap (without hitting the box).
You can twist the frame slightly across the diagonal of the gap to give yourself a little more room to do it. Just one or two sharp jerks is all that’s needed, you’ll soon “get it”.
Once you’ve shaken the bees off each frame, both handling and viewing the frame is much easier to do.
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When we use gloves, we use 9 mil Nytrile gloves. They are like surgeons gloves, very thin. The bees can sting through them but rarely do, but if they really try the sting is not deep at all and the rubber helps pull the stinger. They fit like skin, so not much difference in gentleness of handling. Use of gloves depends on what we’re doing and how much we’re disturbing them and time of day.
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This is good information. I had to put a fix on my flow super box because it was too wide. My fix is with Elmers glue so I am concerned if I pull that super frame it will pull away my gap fix. Do I have to move that super flow frame and or do I just inspect the brood box?