Grant Gillard teaches a class on beginning beekeeping at the Career and Technology Center in Cape Girardeau Missouri for beginning beekeepers

1. Personal Tools & Equipment
Grant F.C. Gillard
gillard5@charter.net

2. The Most Essential “Tools”
• “Knowledge is power”
• Bee Magazines and Supply Catalogs
• Books
• www.youtube.com
• www.beesource.com
• www.honeybeesonline.com
• Bee clubs
• Mentors and sage advice

3. Bee Hives
• Talk to suppliers, compare prices
• Service and follow up, not just price
• Learn the “lingo” and jargon
• Ask five beekeepers = ten opinions
• Attend workshops for assembling
• “Beginner’s” kits helpful for first time
• Tend to have stuff you might not need

6. Personal Equipment

7. • “Man Up” -- just take it like a “man”
• “Suit Up” -- wear protective clothing
• “Shut Up” -- bees sting! What’s your
beef?

8. What do I need?
• Personal safety
• Back problems? Back brace?
• Confidence and ability to work the hive
• Pacify the bees - smoker
• Ability to pull out sticky frames, separate
sticky boxes (propolis)
• Removal of frames of honey
• Perhaps a tote to keep everything together
• B.O. and Deo

9. Protective Clothing
• Veil, some with hat or helmet
Draw string (not bee proof)
Zippered (bee proof)
• Long sleeve, white shirt (Oxford cloth, $12)
• Waist-length bee coat
• Full size overalls, bee suit (yes, they’re hot)
• Duct tape for ankles and wrists
• Gloves
• Sturdy shoes
• Clothing Tub (plastic tote)

10. Lookin’ Good Don’t Count

11. Dress for Success!

12. Opening the Hive
• Hive Tool (various kinds) pry-bar
• Extra hive tool (in case you lose one)
• Screw Drivers don’t work
• Smoker and lighter, matches (water proof)
• Bucket for smoker “fuel” (anything that
smolders)
Newspaper, Cedar pet bedding
Burlap, wood pellets, pine needles, bark
• Frame grip, optional, but necessary with gloves
• Bee brush, optional (flick, don’t brush)
• Frame spacer, optional, for nine frames

13. Hive tools

15. Smokers

18. Bee Brush
“The Bristled Flicker”

19. Frame Grip
Really necessary if you use gloves

23. Frame Spacer
Drawn comb – nine frames per box

25. Frame Perch

28. Miscellaneous
• Queen marking equipment
• Notebook for record keeping
– What I did, what I saw
– What needs to be done next time
– What I need to bring with me
• Rubbing Alcohol
91%
• Baby Wipes

29. Minimum (?)
• Veil
• Smoker
• Hive tool
Also handy to have:
• Tool box or tote for all the little gadgets
• Tool box with hammer, nails, screw driver,
pocket knife or box cutter or utility knife
• Out yards: pruning shears, grass clippers

31. If you travel to an “out yard…”
• Keep all your tools in the car/truck
• Keep all your tools in a tote for ease of
stowing, and so you don’t forget anything
• If you only have one yard, consider a
temporary shed to store stuff at that
location.
• Alternatively, set up two brood boxes, no
frames, top and bottom to act as a
“dummy hive” to store tools.