Independent reference
About Hive & Honey
A free, non-commercial reference for people who keep bees — or are thinking about starting.
Hive & Honey is an independent educational project. We do not sell hives, suits, extractors or anything else. There is no shop, no affiliate link, and no sponsored tool. Every page exists to explain how beekeeping equipment works and what a colony needs.
What this site is
Hive & Honey is a reference and a set of teaching tools. It documents 28 pieces of beekeeping equipment across five stages of the season, provides three calculators for the arithmetic that beekeepers do repeatedly, and builds four interactive simulators that let you rehearse a hive inspection, assemble a hive, run an extraction and assess colony health without opening a real box.
Everything here is written to be useful before you buy anything and after you already own it. We describe what a tool does, where it fails, and how it interacts with the colony — not which brand to choose.
What this site is not
It is not a substitute for local training, a mentor, or your regional beekeeping association. Beekeeping is regulated differently almost everywhere, disease reporting requirements vary, and the practical handling of a colony is a skill learned in person.
It is also not a source of medical advice. If you have any reason to suspect an allergy to bee venom, speak to a doctor before you go anywhere near a hive.
How the simulators work
The 3D tools on this site are educational models built from geometric primitives, not scans or photographs of real equipment. They show sequence, proportion and consequence. They do not reproduce the weight of a full honey super, the sound of a colony, or the smell of a brood nest — all of which matter more than any diagram.
Where a device cannot run WebGL, every simulator falls back to a static illustrated sequence that carries the same information and the same figures.
Safety and accuracy
Beekeeping carries real risks: stings, allergic reactions, lifting injuries, and the fire risk of a smoker in dry grass. We flag these wherever they apply. But a website cannot see your apiary, your climate or your colony, and none of the guidance here overrides your local regulations or the instructions that came with your equipment.
If you find something here that is wrong, out of date, or unsafe, that is worth knowing. Corrections are welcome through the contact page.
At a glance
What is here
The site in six numbers
28 tools documented
Every piece of equipment across five categories, with specifications, safety notes, compatible hive types and the mistakes people make with it.
Four simulators
An inspection walkthrough, a hive builder with a bill of materials, an extraction simulator and a colony health analyzer — all free, all unregistered.
Three calculators
Harvest estimation, sugar syrup mixing and hive volume. They run entirely in your browser and nothing you type is transmitted.
Ten articles
Inspection, brood reading, Varroa management, harvesting, feeding, winter preparation, disease and safety — written to be useful rather than reassuring.
Safety on every page
Sting allergy, protective gear, smoker handling and disease reporting are flagged wherever they apply, not buried in a disclaimer.
No products, no sponsorship
There is no shop here and no affiliate relationship. That is deliberate: it is the only way the advice can be trusted.