Here are some of our bee keeping essentials. Dad’s old smoker – a light puff of smoke calms the bees, matches, dad’s old hive tool which is used for prising open the hive parts and frames, and gloves with elastic bands so the bees cant crawl down them. We also wear full length bee suits covering a good few layers of thick clothing and hats. I’ve just been out to check the bees and they are all well – every single one of them. There are approx 50,000 bees in a full colony. We use dried up bits of bark in our smoker and scraps of unbleached cotton.