When you’re ready to go out in the beeyard to inspect your hives, you choose the tools you think you may need, then toss them in a cardboard box, an old milk crate or in the back of the pick-up truck and off you go, hoping you have not forgotten anything.
You arrive at the beeyard, fumble through the box to find your hive tool, after uncovering your first hive, you realize that you forgot the new frame perch that you wanted to try. You cover up the hive to prevent robbing, you go back to the pick-up truck, reach for the frame perch which has now slid to the back of the bed of the truck, because you never put it in the cardboard box or milk crate at the house. You then walk back to the hive and proceed to inspect, as you go to jot down a note about the condition of that colony, you realize that you don’t have a pen in the pocket of your jacket that you thought you had. You walk back to the truck, go through the box or milk crate that contains all the tools that you thought you had and not finding a pen, even in the cab of the truck, you say to yourself, “I need to get more organized”.
Have you ever found yourself in that predicament? Well, a “Beekeeper’s Bucket” may just be what you need, especially for one just starting beekeeping. One day while in our local hardward store, I spotted a “75 Pocket Bucket Tool Organizer that fits most standard buckets”, and with excitement, I showed it to my husband and we decided to give it a try. So, on the way home I was thinking of all the neat little gadgets to go in all the neat little pockets and I looked forward to my next beeyard adventure.
I was not disappointed, for the bucket organizer turned out to be a great cheap (around $7.00) investment. It holds so many tools and our smoker even fits inside the center of the bucket. Here is a list of what is usually kept in our bucket: a smoker, cardboard, utility lighter, two hive tools, frame lifter, frame cleaner tool, queen marker, queen marking tool, entrance reducer, frame perch, frame grip, frame spacing tool, bee brush, Gorilla tape, rags, screwdriver, scissors, stapler, staples, pliers, utility knife, wire cutter, three pens, and clipboard with paper.
Having our Beekeeper’s Bucket loaded with tools makes life as a busy beekeeper a little simpler by being a little more organized-just grab and go!