It’s spring beekeeping time, and it can be a stressful time of year for many beekeepers. Having your beekeeping equipment ready and getting what you need is an important start to the season. Whether you’re just starting your beekeeping journey or a seasoned pro, here are the top 5 items we think everyone needs.
Protective Gear
You want to make sure that when you’re out in the field you’re giving yourself and your bees the safest environment possible. There are different kinds of protective gear such as jackets, vented suits, veils and gloves. The type of protective gear you choose depends on how comfortable you are with your bees. We recommend you have a suit/jacket with gloves. Even though you might not be allergic to bee stings, it’s never fun to get stung by one of the ladies.
Smokers
This is something no beekeeper can go without. It makes our life easier to do hive checks and make sure that both beekeeper and hive are as calm as possible. A reliable smoker, like the Hiveworld Global Smoker, can last you for years if maintained properly. Though it can be quite tricky at first, once you’ve found the right way to lighting your smoker, it will be a natural step in your hive checks.
Hive Tools
Hive tools are an essential tool that every beekeeper should have. It has a multitude of uses such as cleaning comb off frames or prying frames away from the hive. They come in various sizes, and you can use either classic hive tool or the J hook. As you learn more about beekeeping and continue to grow, you may find you favor one tool over the other, however we recommend that you get more than one as they can be easily misplaced.
Hive
Your honey bees need a hive to call their home, and there are few options to choose from. If you are just starting out, there are few hive options including Langstroth Hive, Top Bar Hive and Warre Hive. Learn more about What Hive is Right For You. At Hiveworld, we love the Langstroth hive, the 10-Frame langstroth hive is also the most common size used by beekeepers today. This size gives you flexibility and a higher yield of honey.
A Langstroth hive consists of many hive components including:
Bottom board
Entrance reduce
Deep/Medium box
Frames
Inner cover
Telescoping lid
Honey Extraction
The number one reason people choose to get into beekeeping is to reap the rewards of tasting some of the liquid gold at the end of the season. Though the extraction process can be quite tricky and sticky, with the right tools the process can be streamlined and made easier. These are handy tools for honey extraction:
Uncapping tools and tray
Extractor (manual or electric)
Bottling Kit
Jars/Honey containers
And you don't need to purchase this if you are able to rent from our of our loactions: https://hiveworld.ca/pages/rentals
Not sure where to shop for your beekeeping supplies? Here are some beekeeping suppliers across Canada:
BCBee Supply-https://bcbeesupply.com/collections/hive-parts
BeeMaid - https://www.beemaidbeesupplies.com/
Dancing Bee Equipment- https://dancingbeeequipment.com/
Hiveworld - https://hiveworld.ca/
Worker and Hive - https://workerandhive.com/
Urban Bee - https://urbanbeesupplies.ca/
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