My Top 30 Beekeeping Preferences - Everything From Foundation to Gloves to Smokers!

In my last video, I spoke about what beehive I would buy if I was starting again. I've had so many questions on this one, so I thought I'd do my top 30 beekeeping preferences.

We're going to go through everything from wooden hives to polyhives to nucs to smokers to camera equipment, varroa control, swarm techniques. I'm running out of breath. We're going to do 30 beekeeping preferences. I'm not going to give you any reason for my selections.

I'm just going to go in, give you my top picks.

Number 1, wooden hives. We spoke about this previously. If I was buying wooden hives again, I'd get them all in the sales.

I'd go for Wooden cedar seconds, underfloor entrances, flat galvanized roof, and I'd get them from either Maysmoor or Thorne. I really like the Maysmoor ones though because I like the chamfered edge runner that they have. Means that I don't need to mess around putting on metal runners. That's just my preference. Number 2, queen excluders.

If I was starting again, I'd go with a plastic queen excluder. My personal favorite though is a wooden frame wire queen excluder.

Really do like those extruders.

Number 3 is frames, and I'm a little bit torn on this one. Previously I bought them in batches of 50. I go for DN4s or SN4s. I get them as seconds, I get them in the sale.

I tend to pay around £27-28 as per the sale prices, and I find that all of the manufacturers are relatively similar in terms of quality.

However, going forward, I'm buying pre-assembled, pre-wired frames because I just don't have the time to assemble them myself anymore.

I'm I'll be getting my pre-wired frames through Abello.

Number 4 on the list is foundation. Lots of people have asked me where I get my foundation from. I get all of my foundation from Simon the Beekeeper. It's by far and away the cheapest I find. I know some people have an issue with that foundation. I've never found that personally. I think it's a good weight foundation.

The bees seem to take to it well. That's where I buy all my foundation.

Number 5 is polyhives.

Without a shadow of a doubt, my favorite polyhive is the 12-frame National from Abello.

Number 6, poly nucs. My favorite poly nuc is the BS Honeybees 2-in-1 poly nuc.

I really do like that one. The Abello is a close second though.

Number 7 is mating nucs, and this one I'm a little bit undecided on.

I tried a lot of different mating nucs and I've really not found one that I think is perfect.

My favorite one is the Apidea, but it's very, very expensive. I really do like the Abello Mini Mating Plus ones, but they're a little bit too big for what I wanted to do with them.

And I'll give a shout out here to the Honey Paw Modern Beekeeping ones as well. They're very similar to the Apidea, but they're quite a lot cheaper. They're definitely worth a look.

Number 8 is a smoker. Favorite smoker without a doubt is my Rouch Boy from Becky's Bees. Number 9, smoker fuel.

I have used wood pellets, fully converted to wood pellets, although some people do use cat litter. They're very similar products. They give you a really good, long-lasting, cool smoke.

Number 10, straps or bricks.

You know me, I like to strap everything up, and I use a standard simple ratchet strap. Not a massive fan of the Spanset ones, although I know a lot of people are.

Number 11 the hive tool.

I used to like the J-Hive tool, but I've broken too many lugs to be dealing with that anymore. So now I just use a standard hive tool, but I link it to my retractable keychain that I put on my suit. Makes a massive difference having your hive tool available at all times.

Number 12 is gloves, and I buy them from Viking Direct.

They're long-wristed nitrile gloves.

I also keep a stock of the Marigold copies from Viking Direct as well.

They're a bit more expensive, but they offer you a bit more protection as well. Pick them up for around 60 or 70p a pack.

Number 13 is varroa treatments, and I use Apivar as an autumn treatment, and then I use Apibioxal as a winter treatment. Number 14 is my bee suit, and without a doubt I'm going for the Ultra Bee Suit from BB Wear.

That has transformed my beekeeping.

Number 15 is extraction equipment.

Now I've not got a huge experience in terms of other people's extraction equipment because it's not the kind of thing that you're going to buy for 5 or 6 grand and review it as a one-off. So All of my equipment is from Lyson. I've got their Meliflow, 2 bottling machines, a 24-frame extractor, an auto uncapper, a wax cappings press, a 200-liter creamer, 100-liter settling tank, and a heather loosener as well. All of those products are really good and I can highly recommend them.

Number 16 is footwear, and I definitely prefer to wear wellies when I'm out.

I wear Aigle wellies— probably not how you pronounce it, but that's how I say it anyway. They're quite expensive, but they're definitely built to last. And then if anyone's asking, I wear my bee suit over my wellies as opposed to tucking my bee suit into my wellies.

Number 17 is fondant, and I like to go with a solid cheap baker's fondant from Baco.

12.5 kilogram slab, pick it up for around £8 or £9.

In terms of pollen patties, I used to make up sub using Ultra Bee.

I find that a little bit messy now, and I find that I just don't have the time to be doing that. So I moved over last year and I tried some Happy Pasta Plus. It's way more convenient for me, and the bees seem to do really, really well on it. So I'm happy to recommend that as my product of choice. You can pick that one up from Modern Beekeeping.

Number 19 is a feeder, and you know me, I'm going with my poly Ashford feeder from Abelo. Number 20 is liquid feed. I get all my liquid feed from Wyfield Apiaries.

They provide a really good quality invert, either in small 14-kilogram containers, or you can get it by the IBC as well.

21, bit of a strange one, this one, bait hives. My bait hive preference is a used 6x6 nuc, so that's 6 frames with 6 frames on top, in total a 12-frame nuc, really well used, black frames, seal up the floor, 50p entrance, face it south, 3 meters off the floor.

Really good success with that bait hive setup.

Number 22 is long hives. There's only going to be one long hive supplier, isn't there?

Hyde Hives is definitely my top pick. And if you want a specific hive from them as a recommended option, I would go with the queen rearing nuc option.

It's exactly the same as the standard long hive.

In fact, it's actually a little bit longer because you get the additional dividers in there as well. But you can run that as a standard long hive. If I was buying any more or they were going to give me any more, that's the one I'd go for.

Number 23 is supers, and for me I'd go with a wooden National Cedar Second Super, castellated but using SN4 or DN4 frames depending on what sizes you're going for, and I'd use the castellations in 10s. 24 is marking pens for queens. I've got a whole wide array of marking pens.

Some are absolutely rubbish, some are really good. All of the oil-based ones are pretty good. I've got a new set coming this year that I'm going to use called Zaya, and they come in a wide array of colors and some really nice bright colors in there as well. I'm going to use those on my own queens.

Number 25 is my camera. I use a Sony A7S III with a 20mm f/1.8 lens.

I've also got the 24-105mm f/4 lens, and I've got a 90mm f/2.8 macro lens as well.

Number 26 is my audio. I use the Rode Wireless Go II. Number 27 is my favorite queen. This one was so difficult, but I'm gonna have to go with the Yalanta queens. The reason for that choice is they just fit into my operation so well.

We get quite a lot of heather here, nowhere near as much as Murray McGregor's operation, but they seem to build up well and get to the right point in the season just where we need them to. Saying that, it was a very, very close call.

Number 28, favorite swarm control technique. I bet you can guess this one already.

It's a preemptive Demarest split.

Number 29, my favorite queen rearing technique. Again, I bet you've guessed this one. Mike Palmer's technique, 10 over 10. Same technique that's used by Richard Null. And then the final one on the list, number 30, something a little bit different, and it's one to avoid.

Don't be tempted by the prices on Alibaba. By the time you get through, you add on all of your custom fees, your VAT, everything that's not included on that original price, the costs certainly rack up unless you're buying thousands at once. And then you're just at the mercy of the Chinese companies sending stuff over there. It looks good on paper, but once you actually add it all up and get it over here, it's probably not the best choice in the world.

So there we go, 30 top preferences. I'm guessing all of you didn't have exactly the same preferences, so if there's any differences in there, anything that you think that I've got horribly wrong or I should try out differently that's better than what's on my list, stick it in the comments.

I'd love to know your opinions.

If you want to know more about my favorite queen rearing technique, check out this video here where I'll give you the full details of my queen rearing process.