The market for the various devices used to carry out work in the apiary, and their classification presents a certain difficulty for a beginner. It is especially difficult to understand the classification. What is the difference between equipment and inventory? What are beekeeping devices?
We made a small overview on this topic and took the risk of compiling our own classification in order to provide systematized information for novice beekeepers.
The content of the article
- 1 About classification
- 2 Beekeeping equipment
- 3 Beekeeping equipment
About classification
Beekeeping practice allows the team . carry out the following classification:
- Apiary equipment – special devices, both factory-made and home-made, allowing the beekeeper to inspect and clean the hives, engage in the withdrawal of queen bees, and work with frames. More often these are devices that are small in size.
- Apiary equipment – large devices that allow you to scale, that is, to engage in industrial breeding and keeping bees. These are various automated lines for pumping out, packing and packaging honey, equipment for preparing top dressing and distributing it to bee colonies, unsealing honeycombs, and so on. But even in a small beekeeping farm, you can find honey extractors, wax melters, wax presses, devices for pulling wire in frames and installing foundation. All this, it seems to us, should not be classified as inventory (in other words, to the simplest beekeeping tools).
Under the concept of “Apiary accessories” you can mean anything: various implements or equipment, overalls for working with bees. But here you can safely include everything related to bee houses – in fact, the hives themselves, their components when using a multi-body structure, frames. And everything that relates directly to the maintenance of the apiary – various devices to facilitate the work of the beekeeper. For example, scales, trolley and hoist for transporting beehives.
By the way, the cart and checkweigher, if desired, can be easily built with your own hands. Read more here: Apiary trolley and scales
Beekeeping equipment
All inventory (tools) can be divided into several subcategories.
To inspect the bee colonies you will need:
Chisel – a must-have tool for any beekeeper, required regardless of the size of the apiary. Made of steel. The bent end of the tool is used as a lever – it is convenient for them to pry off the frame tightly fastened with propolis or wax. The sharpened end is more often used in cleaning bee houses and contaminated frames.
In our separate article, we described how you can improve an ordinary chisel: Simple do-it-yourself apiary equipment
Brush – another mandatory attribute of the beekeeper. It has an elongated shape and a comfortable handle. It is made of soft natural bristles that are not capable of accidentally injuring bees. It is used for sweeping away insects when collecting frames from the hive, as well as for cleaning during spring inspection of houses.
Smoker – the simplest device, consisting of a cylindrical body with a lid and bellows for inflating coals. A metal glass with holes in the bottom is placed inside the case. The rotten cakes prepared by the beekeeper are burned here. Outside there is a hook for which the device can be conveniently hung on the wall of the hive or other suitable place.
Low density wood is suitable as “fuel”. For example, rotten pieces of alder, aspen, willow, birch. Once set on fire, such materials smolder with abundant smoke. You can also use well-dried tinder fungus – a classic fuel used to kindle fires by ancient people. To calm insects, the herb of mint, lemon balm, catnip is used. Its bundles are pre-dried!
Note: It is forbidden to light spruce or pine in smokers. These resinous rocks give off asphyxiant smoke when burned, in addition to this, their wood gives sparks (bees may suffer).
Sheet steel blade necessary for cleaning the bottom of bee houses during spring cleaning.
For the same purpose applies hard wire poker with a diameter of at least 5 mm. It is convenient to use it to remove dead water and various garbage through the entrance.
Carrying – a special box that can hold up to 8-10 frames. Made of plywood, with a hinged or removable cover. For convenient installation of frames, there are hangers inside like in a hive. The box is equipped with two handles. Sometimes there is a burlap loop on the top, used to carry the empty box over the shoulder.
Note: The carrier is needed not only for delivering frames to the hives, but also for short-term keeping of bees. For example, you can plant a layer or a removed swarm here. Therefore, the box has a tap hole and a separate mesh cover on the frame so that the swarming insects do not get worn out.
Захват – a metal instrument working on the principle of forceps. It is used for easy removal of frames from the bee nest. Curved metal gripper elements are crossed crosswise. Connect them together, gently pressing the wooden handles.
Holder (hanger) – a structure on which you can hang 2-4 frames when examining bee colonies. Installed outside the hive. This is an optional inventory that can be used as desired. We believe that bee theft can be provoked in a similar way if the outside of the hive accidentally turns out to be smeared with droplets of honey.
Blowtorch – a tool for disinfecting empty hives before settling a new colony in them. Instead of a lamp, you can use a gas cartridge used by tourists for cooking in field conditions.
Canvas – a rectangular piece of linen or cotton fabric required to cover the frames in the nest from above. The beekeeper should always have a stock of blank scraps at hand! Sometimes the fabric is gnawed by mice – it has to be replaced when cleaning the hives. In the spring, all laps are washed in running water, cleaned of propolis and thoroughly fried in the sun. Do not use burlap (bees gnaw it!), Synthetic fabric that does not allow air to pass through and does not absorb excess moisture. The best material is linen tablecloths and cotton canvases purchased from artist shops.
To work with uterus you will need:
Cap – a rim made of tin, equipped with a fine tinned mesh. On the reverse side, the structure has three spikes for attaching to the honeycomb. It is used for placing the queen bee in a hive inhabited by tinder bees. The main function is to limit the movement of the uterus on the honeycomb. The diameter of the cap is 14 cm, the height of the tin rim is 1,6 cm, of the spikes is 0,9 cm.
Titov’s cell used for capturing queens, as well as for their transportation over a short distance or temporary keeping. Mature queen cells are also preserved here. Outwardly, it looks like a small box, the walls of which are covered with a tinned mesh. There is a hole in the top of the plate for hanging the sealed mother liquor. If a female is contained inside, the hole is closed with a latch. The cage is equipped with a movable wooden block for placing food.
Dividing grid – part of the structure of the hive, made of tinplate with rows of oblong holes. Serves to demarcate the nest (to separate its part) when limiting the laying of eggs, removing queens, making insulators. The standard size is 448 x 250 millimeters.
To work with frames you will need:
Special pattern – a plane or support made of wood, used when fixing the foundation to the wire frame.
Shiloh (hole punch) for piercing side rails. The holes are used to pull the wire. We use an electric drill for this purpose, on which a drill with a diameter of 1 millimeter is installed.
Spur roller – a tool that allows you to fix the foundation in a cold way. A toothed disc roller is installed on the tool. Using a roller, the wax is rolled onto the upper bar, and the spur is used to solder the wire. To do this, the roller is installed in such a way that the wire penetrates the groove, and then the tool is drawn along the foundation.
We wrote about the use of various home-made products for laying and pulling the wire in separate articles:
We pull the wire correctly – homemade
How to impose a framework – using effective homemade products
Round useful for pre-threading the wire into the prepared holes. For the final pulling, it is better to use special machines to avoid accidental breakage and damage to the wire frame.
To pump out honey you will need:
Percolatormade of tinned steel and wire, with a mesh diameter of 1 to 3 millimeters. There are different designs, adapted both for hanging the honey extractor on the crane, and for installation on containers for ready-made honey.
Нож – a special tool for cutting (unsealing) honeycombs. It has a wide, flat blade that is well sharpened on both sides. The handle is curved upwards and covered with wood. The classic is a knife heated in hot water. A more modern option is the use of an electric knife.
Steam knives factory production are used in large apiaries, where the work of pumping honey is put on stream. In such a device there is a boiler equipped with a safety valve, a pipe for supplying steam and a knife with a channel for its passage.
Sometimes for opening the honeycomb use a fork made of metal needlesmounted on a plastic base. Such a tool speeds up the work, but the wax is more contaminated with honey than when working with a knife.
Beekeeping equipment
Honey extractors – one of the most important equipment for an apiary. They have different sizes, depending on the needs of the farm.
On small apiaries, a two-frame chordial honey extractor with a gear drive is sufficient. The four-frame chordial and radial models are more suitable for large apiaries. And for the industrial production of honey, radial models with 50 or more frames are useful.
By the type of drive, all honey extractors are divided:
- for manual;
- on equipped with an electric drive (motor).
The main working vessel of the chordial structure is made in the form of a cylindrical tank, inside which a rotor with metal mesh cassettes is installed. The rotor axis is supported by a ball bearing. The drive is equipped with a closed gear reducer. Cassettes can be reversible (reversible) or non-reversible, requiring manual rearrangement of honeycombs.
Hole puncher – a machine for simultaneous piercing of several holes in the frame slats. Before use, the equipment is fixed on the work table.
Voskotopka – equipment produced in two versions: a model that works by means of solar heat and a model that melts wax by means of water vapor. Water wax pots can be heated with electricity, stove, primus, kerosene stove. They have the simplest design of a tank with two walls, between which water is poured. The inner insert is made of stainless steel and has holes for wax drainage through a special tube. Fits in such a model from 3 to 25 kilograms of wax raw materials (up to 20 combs).
Note: Large-volume wax melters are versatile equipment that is successfully used for disinfection of frames, small equipment, as well as preparation of syrup.
Solar models assembled from tin, aluminum or wood. They are in the form of a box, the back wall of which is slightly higher than the front one. A baking sheet is installed inside at an angle. From above it is covered with a lid with two glasses. In one hot summer day, up to 3-4 kilograms of high-quality wax can be obtained from such a structure.
Voskopress allows you to extract the maximum amount of wax, practically wringing the merv dry. Popular are the tank-shaped hydraulic and lever-screw presses. The preheated (boiled) parts of the honeycomb are placed in burlap and placed inside the wax press. Then the screw is tightened. The disadvantage of such models is the rapid cooling of the heated raw material, which complicates pressing.
Dryers – special chambers for drying the collected pollen (pollen), equipped with a thermostat to maintain the set temperature and a fan. In small apiaries, you can use compact kitchen models in the form of a plastic cylinder assembled from several mesh trays.
All sorts of new products are constantly appearing on sale, designed to facilitate the work of beekeepers. Therefore, it will be useful to follow what domestic manufacturers of apiary equipment and inventory offer on the market.
