In this YouTube video, Laurence Edwards of Black Mountain Honey reviews a free Simon the Beekeeper professional beekeeping jacket he received for testing and giveaway. He describes the jacket’s fit (XXL on his 6'2" frame), noting a slightly short body but overall good length and arm coverage. He evaluates the material as premium, thick, and well‑colored, contrasting it with cheaper jackets. Feature highlights include elasticated cuffs, a large thumb pull, triple‑layer wrist closure (elastic, Velcro, and pull), four pockets with zip closures, and a retractable hive‑tool strap that broke off during inspection. He examines the two veil options, preferring the non‑fencing style for better face protection. The jacket costs about £50, comes with a 2‑year warranty, and is backed by Simon the Beekeeper’s strong customer service. Laurence announces a giveaway of the exact jacket (and an F1 Buckfast Queen) linked to a separate 10,000‑subscriber celebration video, encouraging viewers to subscribe and hit the notification bell.
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I've been given a free Simon the Beekeeper beekeeper's jacket. In this video, I'm going to tell you what I think of it, and I'm also going to give it to one lucky channel subscriber. Hi, I'm Laurence Edwards from Black Mountain Honey. Welcome to another episode of No Nonsense Beekeeping. First things first, I've been given this jacket for free. Thank you to Simon the Beekeeper for giving me this jacket, fencing hood, and the classic style hood as well. I'm going to talk you through it, tell you what I think of it, show you all the features, and then I'm going to give it away to one lucky channel subscriber. So this is one of Simon the Beekeeper's new professional range of jackets, and it fits me surprisingly well. So I am 6'2 and this is an extra extra large, and it is a really, really nice fit. Maybe a little bit short in the body, but I'm a little bit long in the body, so it's probably something wrong with me rather than the length of the jacket. But it does come down just to below my bum. It's a nice length. Normally when I get an XXL jacket It's really weird because it seems to just be like a big balloon size, and I have loads of space here, and I don't really get any kind of extra length in the body like that. This is quite a nice fit. I'm quite happy with the fit, but I am giving it away to one lucky channel member. It's not actually on this video, it's over on our 10,000 subscriber thank you video, giving away one of these jackets and an F1 Buckfast Queen as well. But in terms of the fit, extra extra large fits me well. 6'2, I'm really happy with that. In terms of the material, it's definitely a nice material. Like, I do have a bit of an issue with cheap beekeeping jackets in that the material is not good, the zip's not good, and I've been pleasantly surprised with this one. I do think it has got nice material, definitely a premium material compared to some of the other cheaper suits that I've seen. I do like the material, nice and thick, nice color as well. In terms of features then, it has got some really nice features on this jacket. It's feature-rich. So on the arms here, you have an elasticated cuff. You don't always see that. So you've got an elasticated cuff. You've also got a thumb pull like that, nice quality big thumb pull, just to keep it on when you put your gloves on. And then on top of that, you've got Velcro. So you've got this kind of triple approach on the wrist, which is quite good. Like that there, if anything, is a bit too tight for me, so I'm going to loosen it up a bit. That should give me good protection from any bees going up there. Enough space to put the gloves on. But also what's nice as well with the XXL is that the arms are quite long. I do have an issue generally with XXL in that they just give you extra extra large in the tummy and they don't give you anything extra on the arm. So you can see if I put my arms flat like that, I've got loads of space, don't need extra length in the arm. So that's good, means I can get the gloves over the suit jacket. If you want to put gauntlets on as well, gives me good protection at the wrists. In terms of other features, you've got 4 pockets. Good-sized pocket there, smaller pocket that side, decent-sized pocket there, and then you've got enough space to put a pen. Quite like that because I do lose pens. Personal preference here, I like zips on all of my pockets, but I do appreciate that adds on a lot of money when you're putting all of these zips on. Not something they're going to offer as standard. Also, I do like to see Velcro all the way along. On here you only have Velcro apart— part of the strip there. But it's not the end of the world. It's going to keep it down. Seems good quality Velcro. It's not coming up. So happy with the size of the pockets, and nice that there's four pockets as well. Really like to see that. Now I am sorry, Simon the Beekeeper. I did say I would give a completely honest review on this one, but there was something in here that I just pulled out straight away and it broke off. And I know this is something that's good. It's a bad in the sense that the jacket had broken a little bit, but I know Simon the Beekeeper is very, very good. That whole company. Customer service is very important to them. Something like that, they would fix it, no quibbles. But what that is there is it's a hive tool strap. It's the only thing I can think it is. It's a really nice idea. I've got something similar on my own bee suit that I invented, a retractable hive tool strap. But this piece here, it sits down at the bottom and then it comes out like that. You can just see it popping out, and then you could hook a little hive tool on it. That's what I think it is. Correct me if I'm wrong. But that's a really nice design touch. Unfortunately, it just pulled out straight away, so the connection wasn't as good. I'm going to put that back in there though. The lucky winner of this suit will get this exact beekeeping strap. Right, let's talk about the other bits then. You've got nice branding on the front there, Simon the Beekeeper. Little tab at the front telling you it's the professional range of suits. The zips, nice quality zips. They are, they are nice quality, but it's difficult to judge a zip just looking at it for a couple of hours like that. Zips tend to go wrong in kind of the first few months, first few years. Not saying there's anything wrong with it. It feels like a good quality zip, nice mechanism, goes all the way up to the top like that. So that's about it for the jacket body. Let me get the hood up and we'll have a look at the veil. So there we go, I've got the veil up like that, and I always wear a cap underneath my veils because I don't like the veil coming into my face. And I don't know whether that's just because it's a completely new veil, but it is coming down a little bit, a little bit close to my face. I'll rejig it like that, get it out. And then it does come in a little bit like that, so maybe a little bit of a design flaw there. Might just be because I've got a massive head though. Visibility is pretty good though, I can see through it okay. I think it might be a little bit small in the head, maybe I'd like slightly bigger head if I had to go with the fencing style. Right, I've just changed the veil over there, really quick changeover, completely interchangeable, which is nice. Zips go together nice as well, it is an easy one to put on. Right, there we go, I'm in. I quite like this style of veil. It definitely fixes the issue there. I can see through it just as well, fits nicely on the top of my head, and then all the way around I've got loads of protection between the outside world, the stinging bees, and my face. That's going to offer me so much more protection than I think the fencing style veil. So if you're going to get this suit, I would recommend going with this style veil just to keep that mesh a little bit further away from your face. So there you go, there's a little look at the Simon the Beekeeper professional beekeeping jacket. It's got nice zips, nice Velcro on the wrist, nice thumb pull. The material is nice, the fit is nice as well. I think it costs about £50, so it's a relatively cheap beekeeping jacket. I can't tell you if it's going to last for years and years. I can tell you it's got a 2-year guarantee, a 2-year warranty on it, and I know that Simon the Beekeeper, from personal experience, are a good company to deal with. and their customer service is top-notch. So you can buy in confidence knowing that if there are any defects, any issues, they will fix them. Again, I'll point out this exact beekeeping jacket, I am giving it away. This is the end of the video as well, so I'll link you out to the 10,000 subscriber competition video and you can win this exact same jacket. Hope you enjoyed the video. 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. Bye.
