We're back! But when is enough 'stuff' enough?

We're back!  And after a very trying time during recent months we thought to start with an easy question....

The simple answer is ‘Never!’ It is a truth universally acknowledged that whatever hobby you take up, whether it’s cycling, baking, gardening, or beekeeping, there is always more equipment that you can acquire. You may not actually need that much kit to get enjoyment from your activity, but there will come a time when you decide to get a few more things in order to get the most from your chosen leisure pursuit.

We always advise those new to beekeeping to equip themselves with a few essentials, so that along with a colony of bees, and somewhere to put them (a hive of some type, rather than a kennel or a hutch!), the basic requirements are protective clothing, a hive tool and a smoker, plus some training, and away you go. Of course it doesn’t hurt to have a few hive tools (despite your best efforts you are going to lose one or more in the long grass), and maybe a couple of smokers, together with a spare suit, and lots of pairs of gloves….and generally the advice is to have more than one colony of bees so that you can compare and contrast…Before you know it, your shed or garage will contain more than one spare brood box, a few supers and lots of frames. If you decide to make or put together your own hives then the whole assembly business requires different tools, so instantly you need more DIY equipment. Perhaps now you see why the minimalist approach doesn’t necessarily apply to beekeeping?!

Is there an end in sight to the collection of more kit items? Not really, as there is always something new to buy or build, or modify from other ideas. Our shed is full to bursting with stacks of winter quilt boxes, insulation roofs, spare supers for later in the year, queen excluders and frames, as well as ruchettes for housing swarms, and of course all the equipment required for the honey harvest at the end of the summer. So you’d think we have everything covered : think again! It’s currently ‘swarm season’ and so we have our standard ‘collection kit’ ready for swarm call-outs; however, swarms are rarely ‘standard’. To this end we have equipped ourselves with a couple of extra gadgets, one home-made and one expensive but worth every centime. The home-made item is a ‘bee vac’, essentially a vacuum cleaner which will safely suck up the bees into a container from which they can be re-homed. Bee vacs can be bought but are expensive, so beekeepers have worked out what’s required and have built their own, using good old trial and error. The things to bear in mind are weight and suction power, both of which need to be as low as possible for the sake of the bees and the beekeeper! The other item is a thermal imaging camera for locating bees behind walls or in loft spaces; being able to identify where the little darlings are nesting makes their removal a lot easier. Of course you don’t need this but it does help if you have this kind of task to perform....

Image by Grist