Essential Beekeeping Supplies
Prior to taking delivery of bees, you need to start getting things ready and that includes getting the right beekeeper supplies. To prevent diseases from other bee hives from infecting your new hive, it's highly recommended that you purchase new beekeeper supplies instead of buying used.
Beekeeper Supplies for the Bees
- Hive - There are many different types of beehives, and choosing one will be largely influenced by whether or not you intend to do beekeeping as a business or hobby as well as your decision to purchase at beehive or build your own. If you're going to build your own beehive you can find a lot of different plans on the internet - just make sure the plans contain step-by-step instructions, diagrams or pictures, and contact information should you need further support. Tip - to make collecting the honey easier, put a wax foundation in.
- Sugar Syrup - While bees usually find their own food, there are times when food is scarce. It is recommended to supplement with sugar syrup. It will help to eliminate starving.
- Feeder - So where do you put your syrup? The answer is in a feeder. A top feeder will hold several gallons of sugar syrup and usually has a screen to keep the bees from drowning. A tight fitting cover is essential to stop bees from other hives from swiping your syrup.
Supplies for the Beekeeper
- Personal Protective Equipment or PPE - PPE is critical to your safety. It includes a beekeeper hat, a beekeeper veil, a beekeeping suit, and gloves. Some consider the gloves optional, as bees usually sting the face and neck the most. It's also important that the beekeeper suit is white as bees often associate darker colors with creditors (think bear).
- Smoker - This is not the type that the Surgeon General provides warnings for, it's a small tool designed to blow smoke at the bees to calm them down. How does this work? Well guard bees produce and release pheromones when the hive is under attack. The smoke masks these pheromones allowing the beekeeper to get into the hive and work. Smokers burn a variety of fuels.
- Equipment for Handling the Honey - A honey extractor and container is needed for handling honey. The honey extractor will take the honey from the honeycomb without destroying it. Be sure to have a clean container to put the honey in.
- Hive Tool - This tool opens the hives. It scrapes wax and propolis and pries the frames apart.
Most Common Ways to Purchase Bees
A local beekeeper is one of the best sources for purchasing bees. This is because the bees will be accustomed to the weather conditions in your state. This will reduce the possibility of bringing in outside diseases and pests.
normally you have two options to buy bees. The first method is to purchase them as a package, which is not recommended, as the bees are usually assembled from several different hives and a queen bee is added. Not only is this stressful, but increases the chance of disease. A better alternative is to purchase a Nuc hive.
A Nuc hive is basically a scaled down version of a regular hive. Bees are taken from a larger hive along with five frames of honey brood and pollen which gives them a head start in the spring. Tip - buy your bees in the winter even if you don't take delivery until spring. You may even be able to get away with just a down payment, and what this does is make sure you get some quality bees instead of scrambling around in the spring when bees might be hard to find.
Once you purchase the basic beekeeper supplies, you will be ready to purchase your first swarm of bees!
About the Author
Check out Jeff's beekeeping information site to learn more about beekeeping and beekeeping supplies at http://www.beekeepingstarterguide.com/beekeeper-supplies . Get a free 10-lesson beekeeping mini-course.
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