In this informal product‑recommendation video, Laurence Edwards of Black Mountain Honey answers the common question “what’s a good gift for a beekeeper?” by presenting three gift ideas at distinct price points: a £4‑£5 Abello honey spatula for honey extraction, a £50‑£70 Thorn Empire stainless‑steel smoker for hive inspections, and a £150 Abello 12‑frame polyhive for new or expanding apiaries. He explains the practical benefits of each item, shares personal usage anecdotes, and highlights why each is a valuable addition to a beekeeper’s toolkit. As a bonus, he recommends the Leatherman Wave multi‑tool, noting its durability and frequent use in beekeeping tasks. The video concludes with a call‑to‑action to subscribe and wishes viewers a happy Christmas.
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In this video, I'm going to show you 3 gifts for beekeepers at 3 different price points. Hi, I'm Lawrence Edwards from Black Mountain Honey. Welcome to another episode of No Nonsense Beekeeping. I get asked lots of questions throughout the year. This time of the year though, the number one question that I get asked is, what's a good gift for a beekeeper? So I thought I'd just do a really quick video showing you 3 different gifts that you can get for a beekeeper at 3 different price points. Right, so the price points we're going to be talking about, we're going to be talking about £5 price point, £50 price point, and £150 price point. And I'm going to give you a little bonus one at the end as well, which isn't something really to do with beekeeping, but it's one of the best tools that I use in my beekeeping that's got nothing to do with bees. Right, number 1, the Abello Honey Spatula. What an odd start to this video, hey? A plastic spatula. Get these from Abello. These cost £4. Abello gave me this one for free, but trust me, this is the most important tool that I have in my honey extraction room. And I've got honey extraction equipment up to about £25,000 in that extraction room, but this £4 spatula is the most used piece of kit that I've got, and it's such an effective And really useful piece of equipment. So you might be thinking, why do you need a honey spatula? So if you're serious about beekeeping and you've got beekeepers who are putting their honey into buckets and they're storing them, one of the biggest problems is getting all of the honey out of the bucket. Now I've used loads of different spatulas. When you melt down the honey, you get it runny again, and sometimes people, they have designs where you put the bucket on a stand, you have to upturn it, and it drains it all out. It takes forever, but you do get most of it out. If you're dealing with multiple buckets, a 4-pound honey spatula like this is so good for cleaning up around the inside of those buckets. So what I do, I'll go and melt down a bucket, I'll pour it all into my settling tank, then I'll get my honey spatula and I'll just go around all of the edges, all the way down the bottom, get everything out, and I reckon it saves me probably a single jar of honey for every bucket. Just from scraping it out. Not all beekeepers know about these. I certainly didn't know about these until a couple of years ago. The second I bought one though, it became my most trusted friend in the extraction room, and they're only four pounds. So that's number one. Perfect little stocking filler for any beekeeper that puts their honey into buckets. Right, number two. I'm sure you can guess what it is. This one was provided by Thorn Beekeeping, and this is their Empire Large. Stainless steel smoker. Now anybody who watches this channel knows that I have a massive smoker fetish. I've had Deydons, I've had Rouch Boys, I've had cheaper smokers that often get me in trouble, but I'm probably going to go with this as being my favorite smoker out of all of them. And it's only due to the fact that it's got a combination of all of the things that I really do like about a smoker. So first off, thanks to Thorn for providing me with this. I'm sending this out to someone down in Devon actually for watching our live stream, so I'm using this as a competition prize as well. But there's plenty of things that I look out for in a smoker. I've done a separate review on this one, gone into all of the detail. But the things that I like about it personally is it's a nice big smoker, really nice action, and the build quality is second to none. And it's also made, fabricated in the United Kingdom as well, which can only be a good thing. So this one here, they do this in various different sizes. They're all around the £50 bracket, depends which one you go for. But I would recommend going for the large stainless steel version with the basket inside And it's between, say, £60 and £70 if you go for that version. But if you get the smaller version, they're around £50 as well. Beekeepers don't often spend a lot of money on smokers, and they'll just make do with kind of what they've got, or an old one, or a cheap one. And from personal experience, I've dealt with a lot of these cheap ones, and it's only when you get your hands on a really good top-quality smoker that you realize the difference, and you kind of think, wow, that's a lot easier. Stays alight a lot better, gives me the smoke, hassle-free beekeeping. So I think it's a perfect present for a beekeeper. Little bit more expensive, definitely, but if you're looking for that present around the £50, £60 price point for a beekeeper, highly recommend the Thorn Beekeeping Smoker. Right, what's next? Up to the £150 price point. And you might think, where is it? And it's here. It's the Abello 12-frame polyhive. And again, this was provided to me free of charge by Abello Beekeeping. And I know I reserved judgment previously on this, saying I'm not sure what my number one beehive in the UK is, but in terms of polyhives, there is nothing that beats this in my mind on the market at this time. So if you're looking for a polyhive, your partner or your wife or your husband or your boyfriend or your girlfriend are looking to start beekeeping, and you want the best of the best polyhive that your money can possibly buy, This is what you should get them. I would be so happy to come down on Christmas morning and find this wrapped up. It really is so well built. It's the best poly hive on the UK market, and this is the gift that I would recommend if you're looking to spend around £150 for a beekeeper or someone who's looking to keep bees in the future. So there we go, that's my top 3 gifts for beekeepers at 3 different price brackets. £5 for the spatula, £50 for the thorn smoker, and £150 for the Abello Hive. I said there was a bonus product though, and my number one product that I use regularly that you're not gonna find from any beekeeping manufacturer is my Leatherman Wave. This multi-tool gets used so much, and I'll show you how much it gets used now because it is covered, literally covered in propolis, honey, gunk, and every other thing that you can imagine that comes from a beehive. I'm going to take this in and get it professionally serviced. That is how much I love my Leatherman Wave. And I just think it's such a good present for a beekeeper because generally beekeepers, they're kind of outdoorsy people. They like to be outside, they like to be out in the garden, they're generally doing things. And having something like this is so, so handy just throughout the year. I find myself when I'm out at barbecues and I need a little knife or something, I'll pop out to the pickup truck Go and get the knife bit out. It's got a saw blade on there as well, so I go to apiaries and I'm chopping branches down. This is my wild card, and if you can get your hands on a good quality cheap Leatherman Wave or the Leatherman Wave Plus, your beekeeping friend or your beekeeping wife or husband is going to absolutely love you for it. Right, there you go. Send this video to your wives, send it to your boyfriend, send it to your girlfriends. Maybe you'll get lucky, get the Abelo Poly Hive, Or the Leatherman Wave or the Smoker. And hopefully you don't all end up with a Bellow Scrapers in your Christmas stockings. Have to say though, this really is a very, very good one. Nice and cheap, very effective as well. So I hope you enjoyed that video. Little bit of fun, something different for this time of year. I wish you all a very happy Christmas. As always, please hit the subscribe button, please hit the bell so you're notified of every video, and I'll see you next time.
