How to choose the suitable beekeeping supplies?

As there are various types and sizes beekeeping suppliers in the market, it might be difficult for beekeepers to choose the most suitable beekeeping tools. Some beekeepers are very confused about what beekeeping tools they need to buy, how to choose them and how to use them. No worries, as an experienced beekeeping supplier, Kelvin Trading provides hundreds beekeeping products and know how beekeepers feel about choosing the tools that they expect. We know what kinds of beekeeping equipment is necessary. We aim to helping educate and provide high quality beekeeping tools to every beekeeper across Australia. So, please read on, you will find a better understanding about beekeeping supplies.

What are the essential beekeeping supplies?

There are many beekeeping supplies that you need to buy, including bee hive, bee suit or bee jacket, bee smoker and so on.

The first thing that a beekeeper must buy is bee hive. Bee hive is the home of bees, bees will live and produce honey in that box for a long time. Usually, the price of a bee hive can range from hundred dollars to a thousand dollars depends on the size, materials, functions, and so on. We highly recommend to buy at least two beehives, since with two beehives, beekeepers can judge how each bee hive is working after comparing these two beehives. However, if you do not have a large budget, then you can get one beehive.

Kelvin Trading provides many equipment for beehives, including a beehive box, hive lid, hive base, hive frame, queen excluder, foundation sheets, and so on. You can easily find what beehive equipment you need or replace your old ones, just check our beehive product link. 

What dose a bee hive include?

When you buy or assemble a bee hive, you should keep in mind that a bee hive contains some important parts. We suggest you learning how to assemble a bee hive, as if some parts of bee hive are broken, you can only buy which parts you need, change those damaged sections by yourself and save some money. For example, if the bee hive roof is broken, you can purchase a new hive roof at 30 or 50 dollars, instead of buying a new bee hive which may cost you 200 dollars. Gerenally, a bee hive includes:

A. Hive lid – it can provide weather protection, so that your bees will not be affected by the weather.

B. Hive inner cover – it prevents bees from attaching comb to outer cover like hive roof, and provides insulation dead air space.

C. Honey supers – Honey supers with frames of comb in which bees store surplus honey. This surplus is the honey that is harvested.

D. Queen excluder – the queen excluder is a selective barrier inside the beehive, it is placed between the brood chamber and the honey super that prevents the queen from entering the honey super and laying eggs. It aims to prevent queens and drones from passing through, but it allows the workers to pass through.

E. Hive box or brood chamber – it is a large wooden box that holds some frames of comb. 

F. Escape board – there are four metal bee escapes placed in the corner of bee escape boards. So that the super can be emptied of bees before removing the frames for honey extraction. The bee escapes and board are made of galvanized steel with timber frame.

G. Hive stand/ Hive feet – Supports the hive off the ground to keep hive bottom dry and insulates hive.

Should beekeepers buy bee suits or not?

If you have a beekeeper’s must-buy equipment list, you must write down “bee suit or bee jacket”. Bee suit or jacket is very essential as bees can be very defensive sometimes. It is better to protect yourself rather than put yourself at risk. That is why we suggest every beekeeper should have at least one bee suit or jacket. If you are interested in how to choose the best bee suit, you can check our blog about bee suit.

The third beekeeping equipment that you need to buy

There are many beekeeping tools in the market, such as bee brush, bee shovel, bee frame cleaner, bee frame grip and so on. Among those beekeeping tools, one thing that a beekeeper should not ignore is bee smoker. A bee smoker is a tool used by beekeepers to blow smoke into a beehive. The main goal of a bee smoker is to calm the bees.

What is a bee smoker made of?

A smoker includes three main parts: the bellow, nozzle, and fire chamber. The main part of beekeeper smoker is the fire chamber. The bellow attached to the fire chamber can restrict the flow of oxygen. By this way, you can keep your smoker lit for a long time and control the smoke. When you want to use the bee smoker, you just need to squeeze the bellow to get a puff of smoke from the nozzle. A lid on top allows you to add fuel and light the fuel below. When the top is closed smoke comes out of the nozzle. Then, smoke can be directed to wherever the beekeeper needs it.

How to choose a bee smoker?

There are three standard sizes of smokers. If you only have one or two beehives, a small size of bee smoker is enough. The regular sized one measures 4″ x 7″, which is also the most popular one. Then the large size is commonly used by larger beekeepers that have a lot of hives to work. 

As to smoker fuel, there are many different types used. Some smoker fuels are burlap, twine and pine needles. No matter what kind of smoker fuels that you buy, you just need to make sure that they are not chemicals which would harm the bees. 

We also provide many kinds of beekeeping tools, such as many different choices of bee smokers, please check our bee tools. Of course, to make beekeeping as simple as possible, we have beekeeping starter kits that contain all of the essential beekeeping supplies. If you have any questions about beekeeping equipment, you can contact us, we look forward to helping you become a beekeeper.