Beekeeping is a very interesting venture. There as so many different techniques and methods that can be used and can be successful that just about anyone can do it. And just about anyone can have an opinion of what is the best. Ask 12 beekeepers any bee related question and you will get 13 different answers. Why? Because so may things work.

I will say, right off the bat, that I like to stick with standard equipment. It works in my operation, for what I am currently doing and for my goals. I do not discount anyone who does it differently. Nor do I insist that my way is somehow the best way for anyone else. What I have is an opinion. I can tell you what I do and what I use in my operation, what I don’t use and why. What follows is a list of the basics for a new, hobby beekeeper. There are always other options. I will try to stay out of the weeds and away from the more advanced topics.

  • Protective Clothing.
    • Bee Jacket, full bee suit, gloves, veil.
      • As I have stated before, bees sting. Being protected from this unpleasant experience will give new beekeepers more confidence, calms nerves and will in turn, calm the bees. They are also hot, are hard to see through and get in the way of almost everything you are doing.
      • I use a ventilated beekeeping jacket and goat skin gloves for heavy work. A t-shirt and shorts when I can get away with it, a veil when I can’t. The the jacket only as the last resort.
  • A hive
    • This is one of those topics where weeds are found. I will most likely devote a full article to this topic but in the mean time, my brief opinion starts. Langstroth equipment is universal in the commercial world of beekeeping. It is extremely common in hobby beekeeping as well. Fore this reason, I recommend that all beginners use it or some variant of the Langstroth hive. If you get in trouble and need resources, chance are the one that can give you a frame of brood, honey, pollen or empty comb will be using a Langstroth frame. Plus, if you are buying bees from me, they will be on Langstroth frames. If you want a horizontal hive, think about a Long Langstroth.
    • I use all Langstroth deeps, exclusively.
  • Hive tool
    • This thing will be used every time you work with the bees. They have what seems to be infinite uses. They all do the job with some more specialized. Buy a real hive tool, wait buy two. They tend to hide every time you put them down or drop them while running from the cloud of irritable bees.
    • I have tried a few and like ones that have a hook on one end.
  • Smoker
    • Kinda like the hive tool, you use it a lot so… get a good one. All of the good ones do what they are suppose to do if used correctly, make smoke.
    • I use the same smoker I have used for years. A hand-me-down Dadant 4×7.
      • I will add, but really shouldn’t, that I did not use a smoker for the first year of beekeeping. I had it, I just never lit it. My bees were gentle and I was never in a hurry. If they were irritable, I closed them up and waited until another day. There are the weed.

That’s about it. Really. That is all you must have to keep bees. I have not talked about honey yet. And there are all of those thing in the beekeeping catalogs. Don’t need it. They are so very nice to have though. More on that later.