Starter Tool Kit
- 1 x Stainless Steel Smoker
- 50 x Smoker Pellet Pack approximately
- 1 x Premium Wood Hive Tool, stainless steel
- 1 x Spring loaded Frame Lifter
- 1 x Bee Brush
- 1 x Queen Bee Marker Pen (Green)
- 1 x Queen Bee marker cage
- 1 x Queen Clip Catcher
Description:
Queen bee marking colours should represent birth year
It all comes down to the colour. A sequence of five colours – white, yellow, red, green, and blue – denotes the year a particular queen was introduced to the hive. Because queens only live for five years, the sequence starts over again after blue. For example, if your queen is marked with a white spot, she was raised and introduced in a year ending in 1 or 6.
| Colour | Year Introduced |
| White | years ending 1 & 6 |
| Yellow | years ending 2 & 7 |
| Red | years ending 3 & 8 |
| Green | years ending 4 & 9 |
| Blue | years ending 5 & 0 |
It is always best to give the bees a little smoke and leave for a few minutes before carrying out a hive inspection.This subdues them a little and makes the hive inspection more enjoyable.
The Hive Tool is one of the most used tools. It is used for prising apart the brood and super boxes and to get under frames to lever them up. Bees like to fill gaps and glue everything together with propolis and wax.
The flat end of the Hive Tool is also useful for scraping propolis and wax from the frames and hive.
The frame lifter is a nice way of removing frames during an inspection and keeping your hands away from the bees.
The bee brush is a soft way of moving bees from the frames or hive, while inspecting, without squashing or harming them.
I like to have a queen clip catcher to catch and keep the queen during an inspection. The queen cage and marker pen are used to mark or remark the queen.
