Tool BOX for beekeepers

01 · WHAT FITS

The smoker upright, the long tools and the queen drawer

The tall body takes the smoker upright and beside it the hive tool, the frame lifter, the brush and the fuel bag; the high handle lets you take the smoker in and out without laying it down. Below, a sliding drawer with dividers for what gets lost loose: introduction cages, marker and paints, cell cups, tweezers and the notebook. Measure your smoker first: 10 cm fireboxes go in upright; a big one with heat shield may have to lie down.

02 · THE HANDLE

Doubles as a perch for the frame holder

The handle is a high wooden crossbar screwed to two uprights, and a hive frame holder hangs on that crossbar: during an inspection the frames you take out hang on the box, not on the ground or a dirty lid. The frame holder is sold separately. And one rule with no exceptions: the smoker goes back in the box out and cold, never with embers.

03 · IT COMES UNTREATED

Raw wood, and the handle is fitted at home

The wood comes unsanded and unvarnished and the handle uprights come loose, with their screws: they go on in a few minutes by looking at the photos, because no instructions are included. Before first use it pays to round off the edges and give the outside a coat of linseed oil or exterior varnish; inside, better to leave it bare, honey and propolis clean off just the same. It is not watertight: in the rain, into the car.

04 · BEFORE YOU BUY

It is a wooden box by the German maker RuBee: 3.3 kg empty and, loaded with smoker and irons, carried in one hand.