I thought I'd just do a few hints and tips that I wish I knew or had thought about when starting beekeeping!
A nuc is your friend
Beekeeping is expensive enough when you start out, but a Nucleus Hive, a 5-6 frame hive, is a really useful bit of kit to have available to you. Someone once said to me "There is little in beekeeping that can't be sorted out by putting something into or taking something out of a Nuc" and over the years I think it's a piece of advice that I agree with!
Even that "throw away" Correx Nuc box that your first bees might have arrived in is a useful bit of kit to keep around the place.
If nothing else it's a nice safe space to put that frame with the queen or queen cell on in temporarily while you finish off doing whatever else it is that you need to do.
It can be handy to help along that small colony that's struggling after winter in a full size hive. Reducing that space down, especially into a Polystyrene Nuc can really help them recover.
They give you options when it comes it managing swarming or supersedure.
They're a lot cheaper than a full size hive and take up a lot less space! A poly Nuc will set you back about £50, I buy from Paynes, I have National and 14x12 boxes and their nucs have an "eke" that lets you switch between the sizes.
Leather gauntlets are not!
Lots of starter kits in particular include them, here they are:
For day to day beekeeping I hate them. They are too thick, you cannot feel what is going on so you tend to squash bees, Stings get stuck in them, both leave smell and pheromone that upsets the bees, so over time you end up annoying the bees before you've done anything other than take the lid off. They are difficult to wash moving forwards and, frankly, they can harbour disease as well as a result. I won't let you bring leather gloves into my apiaries, let alone go through my bees wearing them.
Personally I prefer long cuff nitrile gloves (colour subject to taste but don't get black!):
Lets get the obvious out of the way, yes bees can sting through them, but for the most part they don't. I get long cuff, because if your wrists are exposed, that's where they'll sting you. You can feel when there's a bee under your fingers and they protect your hands from Honey and propolis more than anything else. I very rarely get stung through nitrile gloves
Marigolds are a step up and still a better option if you feel you do want a bit more actual protection. And If you really want the armoured option for dealing with that horrible hive (it will happen) you can get thicker rubber gloves still that you can at least clean afterwards.
Buy the biggest smoker you can
And get one with a guard, they get hot, hot, hot funnily enough. Much as I like the Lavender tip on Adam's blog I tend to just use the shredded carboard that most suppliers pack beekeeping kit in, it didn't cost me anything and I'd only have to throw it away otherwise. Plain carboard rolls made from Amazon or similar packaging boxes that's not got plastic or too much other printing on it also works well enough for me.
You want a big smoker so it will keep going for longer, you can always bung it up to put it out and relight it later if you haven't used all the fuel in it. A wine cork trimmed down to size blocks up the spout nicely.
And keep lots of lighters or matches with you. Have one in your trousers, your bee suit, kit bag and car. Stove lighters can be a good alternative when wearing gloves or for getting lower into the smoker: