Beekeeping Equipment



Your most important tool in the bee yard is your smoker.  When you lightly smoke the bees, it temporarily confuses them, so they don't mind if you examine their hive. Smoke doesn't harm the bees.



You get to wear a lot of fun clothing when you're a beekeeper.  Your veil, jacket, and gloves protect you and keep you safe, so you can always be brave when working your bees and harvesting honey.

Hive Tool


A great tool always comes in handy.  You'll use your tool to help open hive boxes and to scrape sticky goo from your frames. You'll find many more uses for this simple but effective tool.



Bees build honeycomb on special frames that are made of wood or plastic.  Bees store honey and pollen on these frames, and the queen lays her eggs in the tiny spaces on the frames called "cells."

Hive Boxes


Bees live in tall wooden boxes called "supers." Some supers are "brood boxes," where the queen lays her eggs.  Other supers are used to store honey and pollen. Hive boxes come in many different sizes.



You'll begin with a hive containing only a few frames of bees, including the queen. In the picture above, the queen is marked so the beekeeper can easily locate her.  Marking the queen does not harm her.

Become a Beekeeper

If you'd like to start a great new hobby and become a beekeeper, just click the link below to learn how.