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Step 1
Use a protective veil to keep bees away from your face and neck as you work. Choose from full shoulder and head veils, tie-down veils and zip-up veils, depending on what you're most comfortable with and what fits your equipment budget.
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Step 2
Choose between professional level smokers, which produce enough smoke to work on a dozen hives at a time, or smaller and less expensive smokers that generally work well with 5 or 6 hives. Either way, make sure the smoker has a protective heat shield, leather billows and, if possible, a hook to hang the smoker from.
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Step 3
Start off with a full protective body suit, long sleeves and gloves. As your beekeeping skills improve stop using the gloves since working with your bare hands gives you a finer feel for the temper of the bees at any given moment.
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Step 4
Work with a hook-ended beekeeping tool that has a scraper on the opposite end of the hook. Use the hook to lift the frames out of the hive without having to reach your hand in. Once a frame is removed, use the scraper to gently scrape away dirt and buildup to keep your hives clean and free of nasty parasites.
