Beekeeping Supplies - What You Need To Start Beekeeping
It is improtant to have the necessary equipment before you start beekeeping. Since most people new to beekeeping are not sure what they will need, it is always advisable to talk to an experienced beekeeper in the locality. A local beekeeper can advise not only on procedures, systems and equipment available locally, but also on safety.
One of the first things that you need is bees and a beehive. A bee hive is a place for bees to build a colony and live there. There are several designs of hive to choose from. Since langstroth's hive the movable frame hives have become the most popular. Most movable frame hives are a variation of his original design and are used by beekeepers all over the world.
Queen bees can be ordered seperately from the hice and other bees, so make sure that you have a queen when your bees are delivered. The other bees will not last long without her. If your queen has been killed or injured in transit, you can send for a replacement in the post or get one locally. You may need help from an experienced beekeeper to find the queen in the middle of thousands of worker bees.
The full beekeeping suit may not be necessary if your bees are not too agressive, but it is advisable for beginners to use a veil at least when learning untill they get used to them flying around their heads.The veil should be worn properly in such a way as not to give the bees an opportunity to get in. If working with agressive bees make sure that your suit is thick enough that they can not sting through it.
There are several suit designs th choose from hat and suit, hat suit and gloves in one, etc. Again the advice of a local beekeeper will be helpful here.
A smoker looks a bit like an oil can but produces smoke on demand. This is said to calm the bees. However when the bees smell the smoke what happens is that they begin to consume the honey to protect it this makes them lethargic and managable. A very useful piece of equipment, but many beekeepers do not like to use them if they can help it.
The smoker can be used to help keep the bees of the beekeeper and other things by giving them a puff of smoke. This does not last for ever, but is certainly a help.
The moveable frame beehive is made up of levels stacked on top of each other. The level where the bees store raise their young and store their honey are called supers. Your beehive should be have five supers. These five supers should be between the bottom of the hive and the hive cover. Each super contains room for several frames. These frames are movable and can be added to or removed according as they are needed by the hive for honey storage or egg laying. The frames and supers come in two depths, deep and shallow. There is no real advantage to having deep supers. They store more honey per super, but they become difficult to lift when full. If the shallow super does not hold enough, you can add another and still manage to lift them without too much difficulty. Although it is a good idea to have help.
A spacer is a piece of equipment beekeepers use to keep an equal amount of space between the frames while they are in the super. But you mak also need a hive tool. One of the activities of the bees in the hive is to produce propolis. propolis is used to seal holes and disinfect areas of the hive. This can make the frames difficult to move and remove. The hive tool will help you to deal with this and other small problems.
It will also be usefull to have a bee brush. When you open a busy hive you will very likely find that the frames are difficult to inspect because there are so many bees on them. The bee brush will gently remove these with out to much fuss.
You may want to get a honey extractor eventually, but they are not really necessary and can be expensive. The extractor will help remove the honey from the combs. A very usefull peice of equipment if you have several busy hives.