Best Beehive Starter Kit and Beginner Beekeeping Kit 2020

Mann Lake Beekeeping Starter Kit

Best choice and most reasonable price. Get everything you need to start your very own apiary and join the movement to save the bees with one simple order.
This kit costs less than the two kits mentioned above primarily because it has fewer components. Don’t get me wrong, this kit has what you need to get started, but there is a good chance you’ll be back on Amazon buying more components soon. If budget is an issue, or if you just want to start small, this kit is perfect for you. This 10-frame honey bee starter kit comes with all of the basics.

A very convenient beekeeping kit – it contains the basic set of beekeeping tools needed to start the apiary, or if you decide to upgrade your bee inventory. In the case of beginners, all you have to do is buy bees.

Key features:

• Made of pine
• Fully-assembled beehive
• Waxed foundation

Beehive components: 9-5/8″ hive body, wood frames assembled with yellow waxed RiteCell foundation (x10), painted bottom board with entrance reducer, inner cover, painted telescoping cover.
Beekeeping accessories: round bee veil, leather beekeeping gloves, hive tool, rubber bee smoker, “Starting Right with Bees” book. 

Also, you can choose Mann Lake honey extractor – I’ve already reviewed it. 

Deluxe Copper Top Backyard Beehive Starter Kit

The most beautiful beehive design with copper top and wood hive stand to decorate your backyard! This comprehensive beekeeping kit includes not only your hive supplies but also several essential accessories and a guide to get you started. Contribute to the movement to save the bees, and make a real difference in the environment.

Key features:

• Made of cedar
• Fully-assembled beehive
• Plastic foundation

Beehive components: 6-5/8″ (Medium) supers (x2), wood frames assembled with plastic cell foundation (x16), solid bottom board, inner cover, copper garden top cover, cedar hive stand.
Beekeeping accessories: round bee veil, ventilated bee gloves, hive tool, bee smoker with fuel, “First Lessons in Beekeeping” book.

Little Giant Beginner Beekeeping Kit

This hive kit is designed for you to begin your 10-frame honey bee operation. You better bee-lieve you’re going to love your new hobby!

Key features:

• Made of pine
• Fully-assembled beehive
• Plastic foundation, coated in beeswax

Beehive components: 9-5/8″ hive body, wood frames assembled with foundation (x10), bottom board with removable mite board, inner cover, top cover.
Beekeeping accessories: round bee veil, leather protective bee gloves, hive tool, bee smoker with fuel, “Beekeeping For Dummies” book. The last included into my must have beekeeping books list. 

ApiHex Bee Starter Kit

This kit contains only beekeeping tools and equipment, without beehive. But it worth it! Unfortunately, Apihex doesn’t have beginner beekeeping kits containing both beehive and beekeeping equipment, but this is one of the top beekeeping suppliers. We highly recommend it – two parcel delivery a cakewalk compared to their quality. As for beehive – top rated one is Honey Keeper Beehive Box Kit. Thus you get all you need – beehive and apiary equipment.

Look no further for everything you’ll need to get started beekeeping fast!
Contains everything you need, including several essential accessories: j-hook hive tool, round bee hive smoker with calming lavender smoker fuel, double bristle beekeeping brush, uncapping fork, hive frame grip, queen bee catching clip, queen bee marking tube and pair of hive handles.

Basic beekeeping equipment list

Each beekeeper independently chooses his inventory, which he needs to care for the bees. But it is not always possible to predict what may be needed tomorrow. Therefore, basic equipment should always be on hand. What exactly will be included in the inventory depends on how many years the beekeeper has devoted to the apiary and how much he accorded to this work. Persistent beekeepers mainly testing various technologies, techniques, and equipment, choosing what will be the most productive. Therefore, in their apiary, you can find all the beekeeper’s inventory they possibly could use.

For beginning beekeepers, the total inventory will be sufficient, which with experience will increase. These include hive box, bee smoker, frame grip, wax melter, beekeeping spacing tool, feeder, frame holder for wood hives, hive scales, hive tools, a double-sided uncapping knife for uncapping combs, hive spur embedder, honey filter and so on.
With a much wider range of tools required for the beekeeper, you can familiarize yourself on our website in the section “Beekeeping Equipment Reviews”. Here you will find about 100 devices recommended by manufacturers and specialists that are used in modern beekeeping.

Getting to a new hobby or business always raises many different questions. One of them is what you need to purchase primarily so that it would be reasonably priced and really necessary in action. Of course, each person determines what he needs to work in the apiary. However, there is an inventory indispensable and high priority, which should every beekeeper have.

What does a beekeeper needs in an apiary? For beginner beekeeping kit, as well as for beekeepers who decides to change their old inventory to a more modern and practical one, we offer the next beekeeping tools list:

Langstroth beehive is a practical multilevel hive, which has acquired a good reputation among beekeepers all around the world. Such hives will suit both beginner beekeepers and beekeepers who are engaged in or want to be engaged in commercial beekeeping. Beekeepers who use the Langstroth hives can easily prevent bees from swarming using, for example, Pagden or Demaree methods. And all this is possible thanks to the design of these hives, which allows you to rearrange the hive bodies at any convenient time.
Hive is usually made from the dry pine (moisture ratio less than 12%). Pine has a number of excellent properties, such as resistance to rotting, splitting, has sufficient strength, a strong and pleasant smell.
The beehive kit usually includes two hive bodies, a detachable bottom board, telescoping hive cover, hive inner cover, entrance reducer and sometimes a hive stand. Each hive body contains 8 or 10 frames. Hive can also be equipped with more extensions and a bee feeder. And it also would be great, if your beehive equipped with little metal beehive handles – this will make it easier to lift supers and heavy brood boxes.

Frames

The frame consists of 4 parts: two sidebars, top, and bottom.
In the sidebars, there are “handles” at the top and bottom, and in the bottom and top bars, there are the special troughs for fastening.
All details of the frames are made in exact dimensions, in accordance with the standard. They are easily interconnected and fixed with small nails or moisture resistant glue. If this is necessary, for secure bonding of all parts of the frame to each other, both glue and nails can be used.

Foundations

Foundation, which is mounted inside the frame, has two main varieties – natural (wax) and plastic. Each has its pros and cons.
Experienced beekeepers know how well bees use only natural, natural materials in the process of working with bees and beekeeping in general. One of the most important factors affecting the productivity and development of the bee family is the quality of the honeycomb. The quality of the honeycomb, used when plowing the framework, depends on how the bees build honeycombs. On a deformed or poor quality foundation, the bees will build drone cells. Also, the uterus may not work on some cells of cells of plastic or bad honeycomb.
High-quality wax foundations are made of wax, cleaned using special technology. The composition of the wax is completely absent dyes or any other additives. The possibility of infection of bees through the foundation is also excluded because of the decontamination procedure.
What’s about plastic foundation – for many years it has been used in many countries in commercial beekeeping. Due to its practicality, the plastic foundations avoids many of the drawbacks of a regular wax foundation and adds the advantages of plastic.
Wax from food plastic is easily mounted in the frame. The non-existence of wire and the need to drill the sidebars facilitates the manufacture of frames for the hive.
Already in the hive, such a mound is not deformed because of the wire or under the influence of temperature. On flat sheets of honeycomb, the bees build beautiful honeycombs with a minimum number of drone cells. To correct a badly constructed honeycomb, a beekeeper can simply remove an unnecessary wax ball to plastic with a chisel and the bees will rebuild new honeycombs.
One of the main advantages of the plastic foundation is its convenience during honey extraction. Honeycombs on the plastic foundation don’t break under the influence of the centrifugal force of the honey extractor, which allows extracting honey at maximum speed. There is also no need to change the position of the frame for extracting honey on one side several times. After the honey is extracted, such frames are not deformed and the bees quickly bring them to a state suitable for bee brood, honey, etc.
The declared 25 years of service life significantly increases the profitability of the apiary when using plastic foundation in comparison with a wax one. This foundation easily amenable into any processing (thermal, chemical …) and can be reused many times.
When storing on a plastic foundation, the possibility of moth wax damage is significantly reduced. Wax moth when appearing on one cell is not able to gnaw through plastic and go to the next cell. Also, with a plastic waxing, there is no likelihood of bee colonization by diseases transmitted through wax with insufficient wax sterilization.

Hive Tool

Hive tool pointed on both sides. One of them is bent by 90°. The handle tapers in the middle, which allows you to securely hold the hive tool in the hand.
Purposes:

• A lever for separating frames
• Separating frames from the body, filled with wax or propolis
• Removing wax/propolis from the framework
• Removing nails
• Cleaning the walls of the hive from beekeeping products.

Bee Smoker

Beekeeping Smoker equipped with a protective grill against burns. Easy to use and maintain. After work, the cylindrical glass can be easily removed and cleaned the entire flue
Purpose: for fumigating bees during a hive inspection
The components of the smoker: a cylindrical base, a cylindrical grate with a latticed bottom, a fuel, a cone-shaped lid, fur, a bracket for compressing fur.

Bee Smoker Fuel

Special pellets made from wood, pine needles or other natural materials without adding bark and harmful binders, by agglomeration method and under high pressure. The most used fuel for refueling the smoke is dry solid well-rotted wood (friable give little smoke and burn quickly). When burning, they smolder, emitting a sufficient amount of smoke.

Bee Brush

The beekeeper’s brush is equipped with two rows of a natural nap. It is smooth, so during the sweeping the bees don’t get entangled in it and don’t get hurt. Pile bunches tightly locked in a wooden handle.
Purpose:

• To sweep the bees from the frame
• To clean the hive, when moving the bees or transporting or inspecting the hive

Uncapping Fork

It is advantageous to use an uncapping fork for uncapping honeycombs in cases where the honeycombs have an uneven surface while using a knife is less efficient. Uncapping fork has a convenient shape suitable for these purposes. Tines of a fork make it easy to pierce honeycombs.
The fork has less weight than the knife. Due to this, it is much easier to work with an uncapping fork.
Purpose: uncapping honeycombs.

Bee Hive Frame Grip

This tool is one of the most necessary in the apiary. With it, you can easily pull out the frame from the hive, hold and put them back.
The convenience of using is provided by a wooden handle, made under the shape of fingers, stainless steel, and lightweight construction. All this ensure the durability of grip.
Purpose: to facilitate the extraction of the frame when inspecting bee colonies.

Beekeeping Gloves

Professional beekeeping gloves with flax sleeves allow you to safely carry out all the necessary work in the apiary.
Hands are protected from the bee stings, and so that the bees don’t fly into the glove when rubber sleeves are worn. In addition, in gloves, even in hot weather, hands don’t sweat: there are small holes all over the glove’s surface that allow air to pass through.
When ordering a set, you must specify the size of the gloves. Calculate your size can be on the table on the item page.
Purpose:

• Bee-stings protection
• To keep hands clean
• To prevent transferring possible infection between hives.

Beekeeping Veil

As usual, beekeeping kits contain bee veils of round type. Round beekeeping veil has a special frame, due to which the net doesn’t contact with the beekeeper’s skin, respectively, direct contact with the bee is excluded. Due to the mesh size bee veil has good air exchange. This is not an unimportant fact since most of the work at the apiary is carried out in the hot summer period. Most round veils have the hat (as a rule, made of bamboo), that serves as the main frame for the facial mesh. Bottom part of the veil also has a mesh or ventilated fabric, which is tightened by the beekeeper on the collar. The veil of this type provides the maximum degree of protection in the apiary and the widest view.
Purpose: bee-stings protection

Queen Bee Catching Clip

A simple and convenient device for catching the queen bee allows the insect to be caught even from a comb, without causing any damage to it.
Queen bee catching clip is used to temporarily isolate the queen bee. She feels free and comfortable inside of it. Since there is enough space for movement in a catcher, even several queen bees can be placed inside at once.
Purpose:
catching the queen bee
queen bee temporary exclusion.

Queen Bee Marking Tube

For beekeepers who put marks on queen bees, there is a special device – bee marking tube. This is a special tube to hold the queen bee securely while sticking (or painting) the mark. The queen bee is placed in the center of the glass tube and, with the aid of a wooden piston, is guided to the grid at the end of the tube. The soft coating of the foam piston helps to avoid injury to the queen bee. She is pressed by the piston to the grid and is securely fixed during marking. The mesh has cells of sufficient size for marking queen bee with a marker pen or for attaching the marking number.
Due to their ease of use, beekeepers often use the queen bee marking tube to isolate the queen bee for some time while inspecting the hive.

It is especially convenient to use queen bee marking tube for marking a young (or infertile) queen bee. Such bees are quite mobile, and sometimes it is quite difficult to hold them with the fingers without damaging them. Also for the beginner beekeeper, this tube will be indispensable and will allow avoiding many problems with the loss of the queen bee in the marking process.

Purposes:

• marking the queen bee
• queen bee temporary exclusion.

Little Giant Beginner Beekeeping Kit

Beehive starter kits should have everything you need to get started. Usually some components of a bee suit, the basic components of a bee hive, and a few basic beekeeping tools are basic beekeeping equipment list. The more complete kits have more of what you will eventually need, and the smaller kits have just the bare minimum to get you started. If you are sure you want to be a beekeeper, I would suggest just getting one of the complete kits so you won’t have to buy anything else for a while.