Getting Started - Equipment

Beekeeping Equipment

There is some basic equipment that will be needed for a beekeeper to operate a yard effectively. The initial costs aren't cheap, it will probably take a few hundred dollars to get fully equipped. However, there is always the chance of finding a local beekeeper that has extra or used equipment that would be willing to help someone just starting up. Also, finding an experienced beekeeper to be a mentor, or even just asking to talk to one for a few hours can be one of the best ways to avoid some of the mistakes that can hinder the progress of a new beekeeper. It can be invaluable to learn to use equipment or handle bees from a more experienced beekeeper.


Some of the basic beekeeping equipment that someone just starting up will need includes a suit, gloves, hive boxes and frames, hive tools, Queen excluders, bee brushes, and possibly a smoker. It wouldn't go amiss to have a few basic medications for different diseases and pests that bees deal with as well. We'll go over some of the equipment in more detail below.

Bee Suit

Bee Suit -- Your suit is the first (and only) line of defense against honeybees. While honeybees are generally very gentle critters, when they feel that they or their hive is threatened, they quickly turn from docile workers to aggressive attackers. While working with the hives and checking on the progress of your bees, you will disturb them as you check the frames for brood, honey or signs of disease. Some of the bees will likely become aggressive at the time, which is normal.


There are beekeepers who feel comfortable without the full suit, just using the veil (headpiece.) I myself after working with bees for several years prefer to keep the entire suit on. However, if nothing else, always wear a veil!! A stinger in certain places in the head (and yes, I've seen some interesting places get stung) can cause severe medical problems. Now, most suits come as a one-piece zip-up uniform with the veil attaching via zipper to the shoulders of the suit. A bee suit will run you anywhere from $60 to $150 dollars. It might be beneficial to spend a few extra dollars for a quality suit that will last for a while. I would also suggest wearing high-top boots, as there is a possibility of bees crawling up the legs if you wear tennis shoes, and that is a bit of an uncomfortable sensation.


Gloves -- In my personal opinion, there is no part of your body that is more necessary to protect than your hands and your head. But as a beekeeper, you will be inserting your hands into beehives, handling frames covered in honey bees,  and uncovered hands (as I have found from previous  and slightly painful experience) are a wonderful target for a bees stinger. A good pair of leather gloves is as important as a veil in keeping bees out. Gloves are generally included if you purchase a full bee suit.

Hive Box and Frames

Hive Boxes -- This is the body of the hive that will house your bees, and it is important that they are relatively important that they are free from damage that will allow the weather or other critters into the center of your hives. Hive boxes hold the frames that the bees store honey in and where the Queen bee lays her eggs. They are designed to stack easily upon each other. As a beekeeper, you will always want extra hive boxes on hand. As frames fill up with brood, honey or pollen, you will need to give the bees additional space by adding a box of frames to the top of the hive(s).


Frames -- The inside of a hive is the nerve center for the hive, and all important activities and possessions take place or are stored in the frames of the hive. Eggs are laid, pupae are nourished, and new bees come out of the intricate honeycomb laboriously built by worker bees. Honey is produced, pollen is stored, and the frames in a beehive have been carefully crafted to replicate a natural hive. All activity in a hive centers around the ability to raise more bees and produce a honey crop that will sustain the hive through the winter, and all of this takes place on the frames of a beehive. The frames are carefully measured with a "bee space" to ensure that the frames remain movable.

Hive Tools

Hive Tool -- This is going to be something that you won't want to live without as a beekeeper. My dad and I keep 4 with us, and it would be very difficult to function without at least one. A hive tool is specially designed to aid a beekeeper in the separating of boxes and removal of frames. They are also useful for scraping. Bees have a knack for sealing things together that a beekeepers generally like to have easy access to. Frames and boxes, for example. Now, there are a variety of hive tools out there, each designed for a specific purpose in mind. There's no need to get fancy right off the bat. You can find a good basic hive tool for $5, and to be honest, that's all you'll really need.

Queen Excluders

Queen Excluders -- These are very important pieces of metal or plastic that will allow you to maintain control of what happens where in the hive. The Queen Bee can lay up to 2,000 eggs a day during the spring build-up, and the eggs can be laid anywhere that the queen has access to. Now, a beekeeper will not want the queen bee to be laying her eggs in the honey crop, and a queen excluder will ensure that the queen will stay in the proper boxes. A queen bee is slightly larger than her worker compatriots, and the excluder is designed to allow the worker bees to pass freely between the boxes, but not the queen. Most beekeepers keep the queen bee in the lower two boxes, which allows the queen enough room to lay enough eggs for the hive, while ensuring space for extra honey crop. Now, you can get queen excluders made out of metal and plastic. I've tried both, and found that they work equally well, and the plastic ones are cheaper.

Bee Brush

Bee Brush -- There is one problem that beekeepers encounter as they are working with a hive, and it's not pleasant, but it happens. Bees are quite small, and as you are taking frames in and out to check for brood and honey, or moving boxes, you will occasionally and accidentally squish a bee. It makes a crunching sound that makes you cringe. I tell you this just so you can be aware and try to minimize any losses by being forewarned. The best thing that can help prevent unnecessary loss of your workers is a good bee brush. It is worth it to get a good brush made specifically for bees, as any other brushes are not so soft on the bees. And a bee brush is relatively cheap. The bristles are specially designed to be gentle with the bees, as they are quite fragile creatures. While you are inspecting frames and handling boxes, the brushes are used to clear bees from an area. It helps you take a look at a specific area, or allows you to clear an area from bees so that they don't get squished.


Smoker - Probably one of the best known beekeeping tools, a smoker is designed for the purpose of keeping the bees calm. When bees get disturbed, such as when you move boxes and frames, they release pheromones warning other bees of danger.  This excites the bees, and makes them more likely to use their stingers. By putting a cloud of smoke in the beehive, the danger pheromones aren't nearly as likely to be detected through the smoke, keeping the bees calmer.
At least, that's the theory. I haven't used my smoker in a couple of years, I haven't found it to be worth the trouble, or to keep the bees much calmer. That being said, you may want to try it out for yourself.


Now, there are other pieces of equipment that you will eventually need or want as a beekeeper, but for getting started, these tools will be just fine. So once again, it will take perhaps a couple of hundred dollars to get started, but if you get good solid equipment, it will last you for years. And putting the money into equipment and the time into gaining knowledge about beekeeping will hopefully save you some of the pains of an inexperienced beekeeper, and make for a bumper crop come extraction time!

Honey!

A Beekeeper's Dictionary

Alright, now that we've begun to lay down a foundation for our beekeeping knowledge, it is my duty to inform you that you will be learning a new language. As with any new skill, learning the lingo is necessary. I've put together a dictionary of some of the basic words a beginning beekeeper may need to know. A whole new world has just been opened, and the accompanying terminology must be mastered. So lets take a look at some of the everyday beekeeping vocabulary. We'll discuss some of the more basic words and terminology that beekeepers use quite often. I'll throw in some advice or personal experiences in here if I think it will be beneficial.

Apiary --  A bee yard, or place where operational hives are kept. A well maintained apiary will generally have no more than 25-40 hives, depending on the resources in the immediate area. Honey and pollen production will lower, diseases spread much easier, and bees from one hive may try to take from another hive's honey supply if too many hives compete for limited resources.

Apiarist --  A beekeeper.

Bait Hive -- An empty hive body set out to attract swarms of bees. Also called a swarm trap or decoy hive. Lures can be bought to be put in the hive as another means of attracting a swarm. (Personally, I've never had any luck with the attractants.)

Bee Bread -- Main source of protein for a hive. Bees will pack pollen into cells, and mix in nectar, enzymes, bacteria and fungi. Fed mainly to the Queen and Brood.

Bee Brush --  A soft-bristled brush used for removing bees from a frame or comb.

Bee Space -- A space 5-8 mm which allows passage for the bees within the hive. It is too small to build comb in the area, but large enough to prevent propolis buildup.

Bee Vac

Bee Vac -- Generally converted from a shop vac, a bee vacuum is used to gather bees during removal, or cutout. When extracting a swarm from an enclosed area, especially when the swarm is in a building, this is one of the best methods to remove as many bees as possible. However, the vacuum needs to be used with caution. If the suction power is too high, it may kill the bees.

Beeswax -- A substance produced by a bees abdominal gland. Bees will chew it to soften it, and then shape it into honeycomb cells to store honey and pollen, or as a place for brood.

Brood -- Immature bees that have not left their cell. That is to say, an egg, larvae, or pupae.

Burr Comb -- Small pieces of comb outside the normal space on a frame where honeycomb usually is. Bees might even build honeycomb on the lid of the hive.

Cappings -- A thin sheet of wax covering the honey in a hive. Cappings are cut off in order to extract honey from the frames.

Cell -- A hexagonal structure that makes up honeycomb in which eggs are laid, and honey and pollen are stored.

Colony -- The amassed combination of brood, worker bees, drones, and Queen living together as a unit in a hive or other dwelling.

Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD) -- A recently coined phrase referring to the abrupt disappearance of a large group of bees from a hive. CCD has happened here and there throughout history, but took an abrupt and dramatic rise in the later part of 2006. It has become a severe problem for commercial, with sometimes up to 50% of established beehives dying off in a single season.

Disease Resistance -- The ability of a hive to avoid a particular disease, generally through genetic immunity or avoidance behaviors.

Drone Brood -- Cells that are larger than worker cells, in which drone brood is laid and pollen is stored.

Domestic -- Bees that live in a man-made hive.

Drone -- A male honeybee that comes from an unfertilized egg that is laid by the queen, or an occasional laying worker. Drone's sole purpose for existence is to mate with the queen bee. After mating with the queen, a drone will die. Those that do not mate will be shoved out of the hive and left to die in the fall, as all they do is sit around and eat.

Worker and a Drone

Entrance Reducer -- A strip of wood in the entrance used to reduce the size of the hive entrance.

Field Bees -- Worker bees that are generally 21 or more days old and work out of the hive to collect nectar, pollen and water. Field bees are often called foragers.

Foundation -- Thin sheets of plastic (generally covered in beeswax) that are stamped with worker cell shape on which worker bees will build the comb to store honey.

Frame -- A rectangular-shaped wooden structure designed to hold honeycomb. They are also built to keep other frames a "bee-space" apart while in the supers.

Glucose -- A simple sugar, glucose (also known as dextrose) is one of the two main sugars in honey, and forms most of solid phase in granulated honey.

Guard Bees -- Worker bees about three weeks old that challenge other bees entering the hive and other intruders. At three weeks old, bees have the maximum amount of alarm pheromone as well as venom in their stingers.

Hive -- Physical dwelling for a colony of bees.

Hive Body -- A wooden box containing frames. (Usually refers to the size of box used for brood.)

Hive Tool -- Perhaps the most useful tool for a beekeeper, a hive tool is a flat metal device curved at one end and flattened at the other.  Used for prying and scraping.

Honey -- Liquid Gold! Need I say more?! A viscous liquid produced from the nectar from flowers by bees as a source of nourishment. Honey is composed of mainly of Fructose and Glucose dissolved in roughly 17% water. Also contained are small amounts of vitamins, minerals, sucrose, enzymes and proteins.

Honey Flow -- A time where enough nectar-producing flowers are blooming that bees can produce a surplus of honey.

Honey Extractor -- A machine designed to remove honey from the honeycomb on frames by spinning it out with centrifugal force.

Hornets and Yellow Jackets -- Social insects that nest in paper or foliage material, with an overwintering queen. Often mistaken for bees, hornets, yellow Jackets, and wasps are easily distinguishable from bees by their hairless, shiny bodies and an aggressiveness that honey bees lack. It is the opinion of the author that hornets, yellow jackets and wasps are good for nothing except annoying the living daylights out of beekeepers.

Yellow Jacket

Wasp

Hornet

Infertile -- Incapable of producing a fertilized egg. Can be lain by a laying worker, or a drone laying queen. Unfertilized eggs develop into drones.

Larvae, open -- The second developmental stage of a bee, starting the 4th day from when the egg was laid. Larvae are capped on the 9th or 10th day.

Larvae, capped -- The third developmental stage of a bee, ready to pupate at about 10 days from an egg.

Migratory Beekeeping -- A method of beekeeping where colonies are moved from one location to another in order to take advantage of two or more honey flows or for pollination.

Movable Frames -- A frame designed to preserve the bee space necessary for a functional hive, as well as easily removed.

Natural Comb -- Comb that has been naturally built without foundation.

Nurse Bees -- Bees that feed and take care of the developing brood, generally 3 to 10 days old.

Observation Hive -- A hive designed from glass, plastic, or other clear material that allows observation of the bees at work.

Packaged Bees -- A quantity of bees, (generally measured by weight in pounds) contained in a screened container and shipped around the world to beekeepers.

Parasitic Mites -- There are two types of mites that are physically dangerous to bees, and economically dangerous to beekeepers. Varroa and Tracheal. There are other known mites that do not cause any known problems to bees.

Tracheal Mites

Varroa Mite

Pollen  -- The dust-like reproductive cells of flowers that act as important proteins for bees, and is essential for raising brood.

Propolis -- Plant resins that are collected by bees, who add enzymes from their saliva, and use it to fill in small places and cement things in place, as well as a sterilant. Propolis has antimicrobial properties. 

Pupa - The third developmental stage of a bee. During this stage, a bee is inactive and in a cocoon.

Queen -- The fully developed female that is responsible for the egg laying in the colony. All activities in the hive are centered around the queen.

The Queen Bee is larger and longer

Queen Cell -- A peanut-shaped cell specially made for the rearing of a queen bee. It hangs vertically from the comb or a frame, and is generally over an inch in length.

Raw Honey -- Honey that has not been carefully strained or heated.

Robbing -- The act of stealing honey or nectar from another colony. Also is often referring to a beekeeper removing and extracting honey from the hive.

Requeen -- The process of introducing a new queen into the hive.

Rendering Wax -- The process of melting honeycomb and cappings and filtering out debris.

Royal Jelly -- A highly nutritious secretion by nurse bees used to feed young larvae and the queen. The only difference between a queen and a worker bee is that a queen is fed in royal jelly throughout development, while a worker bee is fed royal jelly for only three days. The continued eating of royal jelly triggers the development of queen morphology.

Scout Bees -- Bees responsible for finding new pollen/nectar and water sources, or a new home for a colony of bees.

Slumgum -- The debris from melted honeycomb and cappings after the wax has been rendered and extracted. The refuse is usually dirt, bee parts, pollen, and the occasional cocoon.

Smoker -- A bellow attached to a metal container in which smoking materials is inserted. It is commonly (and mistakenly) thought that the purpose of the smoke is to drive the bees from the hive. However, the real intent behind the smoke is to mask alarm pheromones put off by an aggressive swarm during a hive inspection.

Split -- The dividing of strong hives for the intent of increasing the number of hives.

Stinger -- The primary defense mechanism and organ belonging exclusively to female bees. It has been developed as a barbed piercing shaft through which venom is injected. With the exception of the queen, a bee will die after using its stinger. The venom sac to which the stinger is connected is located in the rear of the insect, and is pulled out of the insects body after stinging. 

Honey Bee Stinger

Sucrose -- The principle sugar found in nectar.

Sugar  Syrup -- A ratio of sugar and warm water used to feed the bees.

Supers  -- Boxes with frames in which bees store honey. It is almost always placed above the boxes with brood in them.

Swarm -- A collection of bees with at least one queen that has split apart from the mother colony with the intent of starting a new colony. This is the natural method of propagation for honeybee colonies.

Swarming Season -- The time of year, usually late spring/early summer when swarms generally are trying to find a new location.

Top Bar Hive -- A hive that uses just the top bar of a frame that still allows for movable comb. The intent is either to save on expenses, or to produce more comb honey.

Uncapping Knife -- A knife heated by hot water, steam, or electricity that is used to shave off the cappings during extraction. (To be honest, the author has never had really good luck using this either.)

Uncapping Tank -- A tank over which the frames of honey are uncapped. The tank usually strains the honey before it is collected.

Worker Bees -- Infertile female bees that are responsible with carrying out all of the different duties of the colony.

Hives of Ages

Unlike many of today’s hobbies such as video games, traveling the world, and surfing the web, beekeeping has solid roots as far back as 2,500 years B.C. in ancient Egypt. Sealed pots of honey have been found in the tombs of the some of the Pharaohs, including Tutankhamun. Equipment used for beekeeping, also known as apiculture, has been discovered in Prehistoric Greece and at Bronze and Iron Age sites in modern-day Israel.  Ancient art has portrayed this as an important pastime, and early texts give records and instructions as to the methods of the day. Aristotle himself wrote at length of beekeeping and the lives of bees. 

Ancient Egyptian Art Depicting Bees

Before the idea of artificial hives was conceived, wild honey was gathered from undomesticated bee swarms. The honeycomb was removed from the hive and the honey was extracted by crushing, or pressing the comb, which produced more wax, but far less honey than modern hives. Quite often, early attempts to gather the honey resulted in the destruction of both the physical hive and the swarm of bees. This practice of honey gathering is still practiced by indigenous people from Asia, Australia, Africa and South America.

Early Beekeepers using Skeps

The first artificial attempts to produce honey and wax were crude and often ineffective. Early “beehives” were attempts to recreate a location where bees would gather naturally. Hollow logs, wooden boxes, woven straw baskets or “skeps,” domes made from straw and unbaked clay, as well as baked clay jars were all used as homes for bees. Because of a lack of internal structures, bees would build honeycomb wherever they pleased. As a result, it was often necessary to remove all the comb, which cannot be removed without being destroyed. The harvest often destroyed the hives. However, later attempts of additional removable structures attached to the hives allowed for removal of portions of the bee's honey. 

It wasn't until the 18th and 19th centuries that progress in maintaining swarms and keeping the hives intact was made. A man by the name of Langstroth determined what today is called a "bee space," or 5-8 mm passage in which bees will not build wax and comb, and designed a series of frames in a box. By carefully managing the "bee space," he found that a beekeeper could easily move frames around without damage to the bees themselves or the comb that they had built. When additional space is needed, another box full of frames with the standardized bee space could be simply added to the top of the hive. In 1860, Langstroth patented his design for the intent of comb honey production. By the year 1900, most beekeepers were using a variation of his design in order to manage their hives. Today, 75% of artificial hives used in the world are of this design. Other popular hives include top-bar hives and beekeepers in the United Kingdom use a design known as the National Hive. 

Movable Frames of the Langstroth Hive

An Introduction to Beekeeping

I purchased my first beehive when I was 16 years old in an attempt to become an amateur beekeeper and have been enjoying beekeeping as a hobby for seven years since. Friends were dumbfounded upon discovering that I entertained the thought, and then actually went out and started acquiring the necessary equipment in order to begin this new enterprise. I myself have always enjoyed getting into trouble (not to mention I love honey) and thought "why not?"

Beekeepers Inspecting Hives

Nowadays, beekeeping is enjoyed as a hobby with as little as 1 hive, and have also become businesses where thousands of hives are maintained. And getting started is not as hard as people think. It will take some time and a couple hundred dollars. And I would suggest doing a little research before diving in. If possible, find a local beekeeper and putter around their beehives a bit. I was lucky enough to find a couple that were willing to help an excited teenager and they were a wealth of information.


Some of the basic things you will need, and we'll go over them more in detail later on, will be hive bodies, frames, tools, a bee-suit, and the bees themselves. All of the necessities and more can be bought online.

 Western Honey Bee

Like I said, you will need to be willing to invest some time and money into your new endeavor. Spending some times with books or online will possibly save you a lot of those obnoxious "learn-it-the-hard-way" lessons. I haven't found it to be difficult and have been able to keep up with my bees despite working a full-time job and putting myself through college. Once your beehives are up in the spring, they are relatively easy to maintain throughout the summer. It won't be until extracting the honey and getting hives prepped for winter that you'll need a weekend or so devoted to your bees.

Beekeeping is incredibly rewarding, and there is nothing like watching a stream of liquid gold pouring out of recently extracted frames. The honey and wax produced make great gifts for friends and family, and can net a nice chunk of change selling what you were able to harvest. 

More information about beekeeping can be found by checking out a book, looking online, or finding a good beekeeper in your area.