What is the most useless piece of equipment you have bought for beekeeping?

[lazy shooter]

The thin leather gloves that Mann Lakes sells seem to attract bees. I never get stung with cloth gloves, but usually the thin leather gloves were good for one sting or more on my hands, and I only have six hives.

[Bee Bliss]

I have 10 small cell plastic frames that I do not like and neither did the bees. They only drew them out half way. Also, they have hollow parts in those frames that trap bees in them. Would hate for it to be the queen.

Bought a dvd that was a huge disappointment........Organic Beekeeping 101

[Intheswamp]

Bee Bliss, I'm glad you mentioned the dvd, I had forgotten about those. I bought three(?) dvds from one of the bigger companies figuring I could pass them around to some friends and maybe eventually use them at club meetings. These were produced by one of the bigger bee supply companies and they were a complete disappointment...they were basically advertisements for this companies products, some of which have been discontinued for a few years!!!

Paying to watch their advertisements left a bad taste in my mouth.

Ed

[psfred]

Plastic telescoping hive covers. They crack in a few years, leak, drip condensation terribly, and cost three times what I can make an aluminun covered wooden one for. I'll be making quite a few, as my buddy is planning on replacing all of his soon, and he has a dozen hives or so.

Peter

[bevy's honeybees]

Queen excluder. I know I lost bees, several swarms my first 1 1/2 yrs til I took them out.

I have a frame holder and love it. I have a frame grip and use it once in awhile and I"m glad I have it.

[Paul McCarty]

Queen excluders are great for sifting bees to locate the queen - not so great for keeping the queen out of honey comb.

[Blaze]

I bought these screen bottom boards from a local apiarie with a tray underneath to fill with vegetable oil to collect SHB, mites and ants. Seem like a good idea at the time. Turned out the screen they used do not keep the worker bees out and killed over a thousand bees overnight. Needless to say my girls where not very happy wend I checked on them the next day. I was suited up but received multiple stings when I was removing the SBB and my forearms now look like Popeye. I need to go back and try to get a refund, but more important to have them stop selling this product until they fix the problem. Most useless piece of equipment I have bought so far. Tried to add pictures, but doesn't seem to be working for me.

[Intheswamp]

What type of wire is in those screened bottom boards? Are they going through the screen or around it? Sorry to hear about your troubles.

Ed

[Blaze]

They where going through the galvanize wire screen and several bees got stuck in-between the openings. Just big enough to let a bee pass through. Guess I can use it as a queen excluder.

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[Intheswamp]

Try to post the pictures again...looks like the local path on your computer.

Either you have small bees and the seller was using #6 mesh or something. Smaller bees can get through #6...so if you working with small cell you wouldn't want that. #7 is the holy grail, but rare as hen's teeth. I can't remember who it is but one of the major supply houses builds a beetle trap with #6.

Ed

[Blaze]

Ed, thanks for the info and I believe I got the pictures to upload. Must of been #6 mesh because they where all small bees, no drones or queen that I saw thankfully. Been trying to find a smaller mesh screen, but the big shops don't sell it.

john

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[Cedar Hill]

The most useless tool purchased? A manipulation cloth which keeps the bees quieter and warmer when used in the early spring. Saw it used by an English beekeeper. Seemed like a good idea at the time, but didn't realize that it's only used when opening hives on chilly, damp days and who would do that? OMTCW

[Birdman]

I will have to go with frame rest also. Got one with my with my first hive 5 years ago, ran across it in the garge a couple weeks ago.

[Intheswamp]

Ed, thanks for the info and I believe I got the pictures to upload. Must of been #6 mesh because they where all small bees, no drones or queen that I saw thankfully. Been trying to find a smaller mesh screen, but the big shops don't sell it.

Looks like a larger mesh. Count the number of squares inside of 1" and that will be the mesh size. You can buy #8 off of amazon.com.

Ed

[DJS]

Ed, thanks for the info and I believe I got the pictures to upload. Must of been #6 mesh because they where all small bees, no drones or queen that I saw thankfully. Been trying to find a smaller mesh screen, but the big shops don't sell it.

john

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I build mine with #8 (1/8")screen wire, was worried that it would be to small for SHB to fit through, but could not find a source for #7 or #6 wire. So I tried #8 wire it work great it has killed 100's of SHB and no bee's. Dead SHB is a good one.

[Robbo8916]

The most useless tool purchased? A manipulation cloth which keeps the bees quieter and warmer when used in the early spring. Saw it used by an English beekeeper. Seemed like a good idea at the time, but didn't realize that it's only used when opening hives on chilly, damp days and who would do that? OMTCW

Lol. I think English beekeepers especially in my part of the country use the manipulation cloth on chilly damp days because that is pretty much the only weather we get in England!!! haha

[sweetas]

They probably think it is a warm sunny day. IE, on June 3 , it was 10 C, closing in on the middle of summer. Here in Perth , it was 24 C and bright sun shine (bee paradise).

It is all relative
Geoff

[buzz abbott]

I will have to go with frame rest also. Got one with my with my first hive 5 years ago, ran across it in the garge a couple weeks ago.

hope you didn't get a flat tire when you ran across it.

[daddydon5]

Without question, the most useless equipment I have purchased was the Brushy Mountain corner protectors. Purchased them because they were mentioned favorably on a podcast I heard. Waste of money.