As winter sets in on much of the northern hemisphere and Christmas nears, the pressure is once again on to find gifts for family and friends. If you’ve got a beekeeper in your life, I’ve got good news for you—it’s super easy to buy them gifts at a wide range of prices, and they’ll love the fact that you’re helping to fund their addiction…er…hobby.
Below are some of my favorite beekeeping gift ideas for 2019. I made a similar list in 2018 and then again in 2020, and those ideas are still valid too if you’re looking for more options. These are discussed from the cheapest to the most expensive, and they’re all just about guaranteed to please any beekeeper on your shopping list.
Top Picks, $10-$20
Sugar
Sugar is a recurring purchase for beekeepers
No, I’m not confusing beekeepers with bakers. Most beekeepers provide supplemental feed to their bees in the spring and/or fall to give colonies a boost and help them survive long periods without flowering plants. “Supplemental feed” makes it sound fancy, but it’s really just syrup with two main ingredients—water and sugar. A lot of sugar.
Around here, the best retail deal on sugar is at Walmart, where you can have a 25 pound bag for just $9. Sticking a bow on a bag of sugar is an inexpensive way to give a beekeeper something they almost certainly need, and you could even spruce it up a bit by putting a few bags into a large, resealable container for them to use year after year.
DFM Supplement
One of the DFM supplements available to beekeepers
Over the last year, beekeepers lost access to an antibiotic called Fumagilin-B. They fed this medication to their bees to guard against an intestinal disease called Nosema. The one company in the world that manufactured this medication has shut down. Whether this is a good or bad thing is debatable. And while I still have an unopened bottle of Fumaginlin-B on my shelf, I have no plans to use it. Instead, for the last few years I’ve been using a direct fed microbial, or DFM, to promote gut health in my bees. At this point, I put a pinch of ProDFM into any feed I make, whether in syrup or fondant form. Mann Lake sells packages with enough powder to treat 10 hives for $18.95. The DFM products are said to work similarly to probiotics in popular human food like yogurt, by improving the microflora of the bees’ intestines and make them less susceptible to gut-related illness. This product is new enough that there’s a chance you’ll be teaching your beekeeper something they hadn’t learned about yet.
Top Pick, $20-$50
Wildflower Seed Mix
A honey bee on aster wildflowers
Most beekeepers love flowers almost as much as they love their bees. Flowers literally give life to the bees, so it’s no surprise we become fascinated with botany. I’m constantly planting flowering shrubs, trees, perennials, and annuals, with an emphasis on staggering bloom dates from natives that thrive in my region. There are many ways to buy seed mixes, and I’ve bought them in all those ways. Local feed stores often carry a variety of clover seeds for people wanting to improve feed plots or livestock pastures, but those same seeds are valuable to pollinators (so long as they’re allowed to flower before grazing or mowing). You can buy seed packages online or at nurseries, and of course by collecting dried seeds from wildflowers in your own yard. Handpicked wildflower seeds would make a fantastic gift for any beekeeper, and potentially cost you nothing! Someone gave us a wildflower mix last year, and my wife turned it into one of the best places near the house to stand and admire flowers. One pound bags of wildflower seed mix can be had for about $30, and you can get six or seven pounds of clover from a feed store for that price. Just make sure you’re picking a mix that’s appropriate to your area, and be vigilant about introducing invasive plants into your landscape. For what it’s worth, this is my favorite item on the 2019 list. It’s a gift any beekeeper would be excited to see under the tree every year.
Top Pick, $50-$100
The Hive Butler
My Hive Butler in use during honey extractions this summer
Perhaps the best new beekeeping invention to come to market over the last year is The Hive Butler. A couple Indiana beekeepers saw the need for a multipurpose tote for Langstroth frames, and they did something about it. The Hive Butler goes for between $75 and $90 for the basic kits. The food-grade tote has slots to hold bee frames apart and keep them secure. The vented lid can be used when moving live bees, to hold the queen in a safe place during an inspection, or during a swarm recovery. The unvented lid is best when harvesting frames of honey, because it’s not as likely to attract hoards of robber bees.
I can’t stress enough how nice it is to have a Hive Butler in the bee yard. I load mine into the tractor just about every time I head to my hives, and it comes in handy more often than not. It’s a true utility player in a lineup dominated by specialized tools, and well worth the price if you ask me.
Top Pick, $100-$200
Scythe
Scythes are great for mowing in front of hives without upsetting the bees
Beekeepers generally dread having to mow around their hives. The problem with mowing around hives is that lawnmowers create so much vibration and debris that it can put nearby bee colonies in a defensive posture, which means the person pushing the mower either needs to be suited up or prepared to take some stings. Enter the scythe. It’s basically an old-school lawn mower, though it’s best known in pop culture as the Grim Reaper’s weapon of choice.
I use my scythe extensively for cutting grass around my hives, as well as near small trees and other objects I don’t want to put at risk with the brush hog on my tractor. My scythe comes from Scythe Supply, which sells custom “outfits” for about $200 and provides a lot of good educational info about how to use them. These are heirloom-quality tools that can be passed on for generations. The scythe lets me safely cut grass in front of my hives while wearing a t-shirt, and it beats lugging the lawnmower out of the garage when you need to do some quick mowing around a utility pole or fruit tree. I’d consider this a gift for the beekeeper who has just about everything, and one who doesn’t mind a little exercise. It also comes in handy on Halloween.