Checking Out the Bee Equipment

written by Tom

So my new friend and beekeeping mentor Hernan came over one cold day recently to look over my recent bounty of bee equipment. The beau coup stuff came from my big brother, a longtime beekeeper who actually got me interested and started in beekeeping without realizing it. I went out a few times as a young'un helping keep his hives. The equipment has been in storage for a while. He really set me up well! I had very little idea of what I was looking at.

We quickly dug into those boxes and Hernan hit me with lots of facts. Beekeepers tend to do that, I've noticed. :)

There were some real gems in there. It's older-style beekeeping equipment, so Hernan was quick to point out the differences between newer and older tech, some of the why's and what-nots, and what I needed to do next. Over several cups of hot tea in the cold, I scribbled down a quick inventory.

Thanks to Hernan's help and suggestions, I'll do some cleaning (gotta get those queen excluders ready) and then build a deep super (or two) and see what's what. February will be here pronto when I have to put in my first bee order from Brush Mountain, so hopefully I can rise to the challenges of all the cleaning and assembly that's required to get my hives up and running. At the end of January I'll be starting the Mecklenburg County Bee School, an eight-week course designed to get newbies like me up and running. I'm very excited. Should keep me bee-sy, that's for sure.