My Beekeeping Equipment

Until now I was not sure what equipment I had exactly and kept worrying over questions like, “do I have enough supers?”.  Actually, being an optimistic beekeeper, the question in my head is more along the lines of “do I have enough supers if my bees are super productive and fill a super per week for the next 6 weeks of nectar flow?”.  So far the answer has always been “yes, I have enough supers” but “no, my bees do not have super powers”.  2 supers per hive has so far been more than adequate.

So, after building four supers today I thought it was time for an audit of my equipment.  I thought, yes, I could write it down, but I’d probably lose it, so I might as well keep it online with all my other beekeeping nonsense.  My readership are very interested in these matters! 🙂

Here we go.  My beekeeping empire consists of:

Hive

• 5 14×12’s brood boxes (assembled, drawn comb)
• 2 Poly Nucs complete (bought in 2014, 2015)
• 53 14×12 brood foundation, wired
• 20 14×12 drone foundation, wired
• 40 super foundation wired
• 5 roofs
• 5 crown boards
• 12 supers
• 6 floors (one of which is Apishield hornet trap, external link)
• 5 ekes
• 5 clearer boards
• 5 jumbo feeders
• Box of plastic super frames (many)
• Box of Beesy frames

Thermosolar Hives

• 2 14×12 brood bodies
• 6 supers

Nucs

• 3 Nucs with 18 complete frames

Ross Rounds

• 3 complete racks (32 sections in each complete rack)
• Approx. 90 extra rings
• 20 sheets thin foundation
• Approx 90 complete containers

 Clothing

• 2 full bee suit (I used Sherriff Bee Suit)
• 2 half bee suits
• 2 pairs of gloves

Section Honey

• 24 thin foundation completed frames
• 200 8ox containers

Honey Extraction

• Honey ripener
• Nylon strainer
• Digital weighing machine
• 12 x 30lb buckets
• 1 x 60lb bucket

Medical

• Apiguard (expires ???)
• 10 MAQs doses (expires late 2017)

Other Beekeeping Equipment

• 2 hive tools
• 2 hive straps
• 7 queen excluders (5 metal, 2 plastic)
• 7 mouse guards
• 1 queen cage
• 1 bee brush
• 2 queen catchers (plunger; standard)
• 1 bee marker pen (blue)

 Equipment I Need

• None

Read More

• A Visit To Maisemore – a beekeeping equipment supplier
• Honey Tank – More about my honey tank and why it is well worth considering getting one before you extract and jar honey