bee-keeperBeekeeping gear can get expensive, and it's easy to fall into the trap of buying a pile of things you won't even need in your first year. The truth is that you need little to start, but that little should be of good quality. Here's what is truly essential, and what comes later.
Must-have from day one
- A suit or jacket with veil, and gloves — safety is the precondition for calm work
- A smoker — smoke calms the bees and makes them gorge on honey; don't enter a hive without it
- A hive tool — an iron lever to separate boxes and frames glued with propolis
- An uncapping fork and knife — for uncapping honey at harvest
- A soft brush — to gently move bees off frames without crushing them
Soon, as you grow
- Feeders — for syrup (stimulative and winter feeding) and for fondant
- A queen excluder — keeps the queen out of the honey supers, so the honey stays brood-free
- An extractor — for spinning out honey; you don't need your own at once, many borrow one or share through the association
- Buckets and containers for honey, with a tap for bottling
- Swarm traps and queen cages
What NOT to skimp on
The smoker and the suit are two things you don't skimp on. A cheap smoker that keeps going out turns a calm inspection into a panic, and a poor suit leaves you exposed to a sting exactly when you least need it. Everything else can be second-hand, borrowed or shared.
Maintenance and hygiene
Clean and disinfect your tools — propolis and wax build up and carry disease from hive to hive. Empty and clean the smoker of soot. Occasionally flame or coat wooden parts so they last. Clean equipment is a quiet but powerful health measure for the apiary.
Keep an equipment record
As your hive count grows, it's easy to lose track of what you have and what you're missing before the season. In the Equipment section of the app you keep an inventory by category (boxes, frames, foundation, tools…) with quantities, so before the spring work you know exactly what to restock.