How to find Bee keeping Supplies?

While beginning your  hobby you will face a big difficulty to find good sources for bee keeping supplies. Here are the best resources for finding these bee keeping supplies both for getting started in your new venture as well as those which will be needed for maintaining an established hive or apiary. 

1. web search :

You will find a variety of quality resources for any thing you need about bee keeping information, essential  bee keeping supplies and equipment on the internet. 

You will you find not only online  guides and virtual communities of beekeepers from around the world, but you will also find suppliers for everything from the bees themselves to different styles and designs of artificial hives. 

2. Join an Online  Community or Forum:

Being a member of an online  community or forum will help you to get access to important  knowledge and great useful information on bee keeping supplies and providers of bee keeping supplies. Whether the suppliers are located in your local geographical area or around the world, other beekeepers can be an excellent source of quality referrals on well established and reputable  bee keeping supplies  houses. 

3. Consult Your Beekeeper's Guide :

You should own at least one beekeeper's guide or have at least found a good one available online even if you did your internet research well and became a successful beekeeper. 

These beekeeping guides can be very helpful in finding bee keeping supplies as they usually had written by good experienced beekeepers that have purchased  bee keeping supplies   through various avenues over the years and already been through the successes and failures of early  endeavors. 



4. Subscribe to  Magazines and Trade Catalogues : 

These print sources concerning about  bee keeping supplies   can be a great place for finding suppliers of  bee keeping supplies  and wares. 
You will find not only ads for suppliers, but there will be articles on various  bee keeping supplies   topics to further your knowledge and understanding of best practices as well.

So it is important way to remain current in beekeeping practice is to subscribe to trade catalogues and magazines on that topic.



5. Contact Your Local Agricultural Extension Office :

Local agricultural extension offices have increased their  bee keeping supplies   resources to fight bee diseases and pest infestations that affecting bee population as Honey bees perform essential functions in agriculture, primarily the pollination of crops.

Many local Agricultural offices expand their available  resources to encourage more local  hobbyists to participate in beekeeping efforts. 

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what is The 7 Most important Beekeeper Supplies?

Before starting in beekeeping, every beekeeper needs to know that there are certain items that they need to have at their disposal before the activity of bee keeping can begin.
Most of these beekeeper supplies are available at a number of local beekeeping shops or online from various websites.

Here are some of the most important tools for beekeeping necessary to make your beekeeping hobby a safe and enjoyable one:

1. Beekeeping guide :

When you are getting into beekeeping, it is important to get a Beekeeping guide to be well informed before beginning beekeeping.


2. The Appropriate Beekeeping Attire :

The single most dangerous thing in the activity of beekeeping is the bee stings. Bees tend to sting people while defending themselves and their territory from intrusion. 


Every beekeeper needs to wear appropriate beekeeping attire which includes a full body suit, a pair of gloves and a beekeeping hat that can cover the areas of the body that are usually exposed, like hands, the face, the legs and arms.

The body suit should be white and made of strong but lightweight material that can protect you from bee stings when you are accessing their bee hive to relocate it, when harvesting honey or any activity dealing directly with the bees, then you will carry out your activities in and around the beehive with relaxation and peace of mind knowing well that you are safe.


3. Bee Smokers :

Important item which rates highly on the list of beekeeper supplies is the bee smoker. Exposing the beehive to smoke is way to calm the bees when working with the beehive. 


Smoke will also disorient the bees allowing you to harvest their honey without them attacking you and it can also mask your scent.

Most of these bee smokers use cardboard, burlap, old wood, pine needles and twine as fuels that smolder within the smoker producing smoke. 


With a bee smoker, the bees can not detect the pheromones which warn them of the presence of an intruder. The bees are then fooled into thinking that they need to leave the hive which engorges them on the honey and as such become somewhat unable to sting.



4. Artificial Bee Hives :

The habitat for your bees should always be your top priority before pursuing beekeeping.

It is very important to create a habitat for the bees because without this habitat, it is impossible for the bees to breed, reproduce and produce honey.

You can use an artificial bee hive, which often has a foundation made of a thin sheet of wax. 
Artificial bee hives are often used to encourage the bees to make their honeycombs which will make harvesting honey easier.

The bee hive should be large enough to house all of your bees (worker, drone and queen) and storing the honey produced.


5. Honey Extracting Tools:

The most important step in beekeeping process is harvesting the honey from your bees' hive by getting this honey from the combs.

It is important to have the proper Honey Extracting tools to make it easier.

These extractors are available from most beekeeping shops and the people working there can even assist you with what you need.

6. Bee Feeder :

Although bees are self-reliant and know where to find nourishment, they would still need supplements to keep them healthy.

You will need a feeder where you can put these supplements like sugar syrup for your bees. 


Bee feeders come in different forms - it can be a hive pail, a division board or a hive top, which come in handy during the winter months. During summer, you can let your bees use an entrance bee feeder.

7. Honey Storage containers :

After harvesting the honey properly, you need to store the honey in a safe place to avoid it going bad or pouring. 
A full list of beekeeper supplies should always have storage items like Jars and containers where the honey can be stored after extraction. 

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What do you know about Beekeeping and Honeybees?

Beekeeping is not only one of the most enjoyable activities for many people, but also gives them many great rewards.

The first reward is a great yummy reward very useful for health, growth and productivity for all people-that is the honey.
The second reward is a great and very important help for nature by helping pollinating the plants around the gardens in the neighborhood or crop fields for that matter.

Pollination is an important, if not the most important aspect that helps increase the production of vegetables, fruits, crops and so on.

Bees are very hard workers; they spend their short life working hard to bring the nectar into the hives.

Bees have nearly 35-days lifetime. After that, their wings get worn out and they aren't worth anything to their community. That's when they die.

Bees work hard to bring the nectar into the hives to produce honey to their life, and then they store this honey for bad times –when the flowers disappear from the neighboring lands around. 

In some seasons there are lots of flowers for the bees to collect nectar, so the enthused bees produce more than they can ever eat.

Beekeepers harvest loads of honey in this time. And you can always make money selling honey.

Beekeepers use centrifuge equipments (extractors) to remove the honeycombs then they sell off the honey gathered from hives. It's liquid honey.

Beekeepers are able to sell honey in another different form by cutting the honeycomb into pieces! There are a lot of people out there who like to buy honey in the original wax combs - right at their source. 

The honey sold this way isn't ready for use, but for people who want things natural, this is an added attraction.

There are different kinds of colors and flavors the honey comes in.

The colors and flavors of the honey differ according to the different scents present in flowers. In the same way, nectar from different types of flowers smells and taste different.

Also the variation of the soil type can also influence the appearance of your honey and causes variation in taste and smell of the honey.

As for an instance, you can get honey something between white and clear from the nectar of flowers grown in dry or alkali type soil such as flowers of alfalfa, On the other hand, honey that comes from buckwheat is very dark because these flowers grow in soils characterized by acidic .

Honeycomb's quality can also influence the color of the honey, as well as its looks and tastes. Sometimes, the color of the honey is golden, while you can also find red or green.

Beekeeper should learn and know all things affecting his bees and honey produced by them to gain the best profits from this great valuable business.

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How to Collect Bee Pollen without being stung ?

Bee hives like as small factories producing many beneficial products for our health and fitness

Bee Pollen is one of the important healthy products you can gain from your bee hives.

Most people don't like the idea of collecting bee pollen or honey because they don't want to get being stung.



How to Collect Bee Pollen safely?

Collecting pollen needs some skills, and a little knowledge, you should know how to collect pollen by the right way to do it safely.

The first thing you should know is about understanding the method by which the bees collect bee pollen before they bring it to their hive.

Bees carefully collect it from the most select flowering plants with their tongues, and they pass it back to a basket on their legs.

The pollen sticks to hairs found on the bees’ legs while bees are going between and around flowers

This means that potentially a bee could hold tons of pollen during the course of their collection! Once they complete their collection, they will then carry it back to their hive. When they do, we have to be clever in making it possible to collect it by our own methods!

Bee Pollen Trap

The easiest way to collect bee pollen without hurting the bees is by making little trap doors that the bees must fly through in order to get to their hive, and as they do, the mesh will capture the pollen .

Thousands of pounds of pollen are collected by bees each year, because they need it in order to survive and to feed off the pollen, while the Queen Bee feeds off of the royal jelly which is also a different substance from honey and pollen.

The bees give us many important products helping us to be healthy.

The bees not produce honey, royal jelly and propolis only but also they make it easy for us to get this pollen from the flowers by doing the hard work by collecting it from flowering plants, otherwise you can imagine it would be quite a tedious process to collect pollen directly from the flowers.

Some bee farmers put little trays below the mesh netting where the pollen can drop off, and all they need to do is take that tray, get the pollen, and then start the process. 

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How to Manage Your Honey Bees in the winter?

Honey bees work hard all over the year through different climates in different seasons, so raising honey bees requires proper management all year round. 

Even though beekeeping is commonly regarded in the warm months, you should give attention to some information’s about what you should do to manage your bees during the winter months:

...If the bees have not stored up enough honey to survive the winter months, then they will suffer from difficult situations during these cold months and will start to exhibit signs of starvation.

Some bees may die out during this cold time and will need to be disposed of.

You should watch your bees carefully during the winter season to avoid this condition of starvation, and if you find out the food stores are low, then you may need to create some sugar syrup for them in order to maintain the remaining bees.

... To ensure that there will be enough worker bees available in spring for honey production and to gather pollen, you should get your queen bees ready.

Ensure that your queen bee is laying enough eggs so that. If you feel that your queen bee is not producing enough, then you can always re-queen by purchasing a new queen bee as a replacement.

...To avoid destruction of your colonies by diseases you should check your hives consistently for any signs of disease - Disease within a colony can wipe it out completely. 

If you find any signs of disease, then all equipment should be disposed of immediately.

These are just some tips to get you managing and raising honey bees effectively so that you can get ready for the spring months. Managing your bees can be a fun experience if you continue to work at it all year round.

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Critical Beekeeping Supplies

If you love beekeeping ,you need to keep some important beekeeping supplies . 

Self-safety is critical for beekeepers , Using protective clothing can be a good idea. 

The essential supplies like hats, mask, gloves and beekeeping suits can be handy.

Focus especially on the safety of your face. Skilled and learner beekeepers should remember this. You can use a hat and a mask for protecting your face. 

Using gloves during beekeeping tasks is a must for protecting your hands - especially in the instances when you extract honey and handle a honeybee colony. 

You should also use the beekeepers' kits to stay safe from bee venom. 

Using a "smoker" will help you in working with the comb or the bees. 

Smokers are designed to emit smoke that makes bees to seek out food, and that's apparent as the smoke makes them to leave the hive. 

The bees feel a sense of urgency anticipating a fire. Smoke can also trigger alarm pheromones to be released by the hive's guard bees as they sense an intruder. And the beekeeper's job becomes easier when the bees are confused. 

The smoke is produced by different kinds of fuels. 

Most beekeepers like to use a blend of those. 

There are eco-friendly natural fuels that you can use. Hessian (burlap) and twine are among the common fuels. 

Then again, pine needles and corrugated cardboards can be also used as smoke creators. 

Burning rotten wood or using typical pulped paper and/or compressed cotton work for some people. Finally, beekeepers also use aerosol cans to make smoke.

Bees are naturally experts in locating food, but arranging some extra sugar syrup can really help. 

This sugar syrup keeps them from starving. The syrup keeps them going when there isn't enough food around. Sugar syrup kindles the egg-laying capacity of bees .

Beekeepers also need feeders for feeding bees . 

Many varieties of feeders are available, but hive tops, pails or division boards are pretty common.

In summer, bees are constantly moving and tend to stay away from the hive most of the time. That's why it makes more sense using entrance feeders.

Beekeepers also use wax sheet foundations to make artificial hives for housing the bees .

This helps the bees to use the sheet as the base of the comb and they start building combs on the foundation sheets. 

These are quite useful when you need to extract honey. 

Bees need to work less hard to build their hive on these sheets.

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Beekeeping Hives

Do you know beekeeping ? 

Do you want to be a successful beekeeper ?

Beekeeping is not only about collecting honey and profiting from it, there are many other aspects such as understanding the species of bees you want to breed and the beekeeping station.

As a beekeeper, you need to be very familiar with the types of hives required, which hive goes well with which bees, the lifespan of the hives, and so on.

When you purchase a beekeeping hive to house your bees you have to keep in mind that the beekeeping hive you will go for should be able to bear the weather conditions of the place you live in..

There are three old types of beekeeping hives :

1- Mud and clay hive - this type beekeeping hive is made of clay and its origin is from ancient Egypt. 


Honey is collected from this hive by smoking one end of the clay which makes the bees fly off to the other end. Thereby, the honeycomb is left unguarded and collecting honey becomes easy.

2- Skep hive - this type of home beekeeping hive is actually a basket that has no inside structure. 


The way that bees move in and out of the hive, this hive has a single hole at the bottom. But there are two negative factors 
- firstly, you cannot inspect the internal structure of this hive. Secondly, to collect the honey, you have to destroy the hive and as a result, the bees would either fly away or get killed.

3- Bee gum hive - this type of beekeeping hive is located in the hollows of gum trees. 


It is better not to go for this type of hive because for collecting honey, you have to practice sulphuring. 


Sulphuring  is Insertion of a container of burning sulpher inside the hive. This action would directly kill all the bees at once, probably not the best solution if you plan on keeping your bees for seasons to come.

These beekeeping hives are made to serve two purposes.. The first purpose is, to extract honey and second purpose is, to create an avenue for pollination of nearby crops.

There are also two modern and most commonly used beekeeping hives readily available in the market :
 
Top Bar hive - used mostly in the UK.


Langstroth hive - used mostly in the US.

Both these hives share common features. 


They have removable frames that makes it easier for the beekeepers to inspect the bees, honey can be easily collected without killing any of the bees and their homes can be used over and over again for a longer period of time. The perfect choice if you're a serious beekeeper!

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