It can be hard to buy gifts for beekeepers because of all the options available, and more than likely, you aren't a beekeeper. Since we are beekeepers, we have compiled a shortlist of gifts and presents that work for all beekeepers that won't break the bank. Beekeeper gifts are pretty unique, and buying beekeeping equipment can be confusing, but all of the products below will work for beginner beekeepers and experienced beekeepers.
All of these can be found on Amazon and are priced under $40, some are sold by us, and some are sold by others. Most of these are in the $25 dollar range, so you can find something that fits your budget. We do that to give you a good variety of gift ideas that fit your budget that any bee lover will appreciate. You can buy all of these on Amazon.
This blog lists 15 practical beekeeping gifts under $40, including tools like beetle traps, hive tools, and swarm lures, perfect for all skill levels.
Find affordable beekeeper gifts like gloves, hive reducers, and sugar patties, with options for beginners and experienced apiarists—all priced under $40.
Explore budget-friendly beekeeping gifts, such as books, refractometers, and winter bee food, ideal for enhancing a beekeeper’s experience and productivity.
Table of Contents
1) Monthly Beekeeping Magazines 2) Small Hive Beetle Traps 3) A Book On Swarming 4) Universal Sliding Entrance Reducer - 4 Pack 5) The Makers Book 6) Extra Hive Tools 7) Varroa Mite Tester 8) The Next Beekeeper Book 9) Feeders for Beekeeping 10) Spacers For Honey Boxes 11) Smokers for Beekeeping 12) Nice Beekeeping Gloves 13) Winter Food For Honey Bees 14) Bee Swarm Lure 15) Honey Refractometer
We are a beekeeping supply company, but we don't have everything available; but want to provide a great guide for gift buying on Amazon. So check out the list below or our Amazon Beekeeper Gift Guide if you are looking for gifts for a beekeeper for Christmas, a birthday, or any other occasion you want to buy something for your best beekeeping friend.
If you prefer to buy off of Amazon, many of these products are available by buying directly from us on our online beekeeping store.
If you are looking for bee gifts for your little stinger friends, we don't have much for them except maybe some battery-operated Christmas light nets or these super cute stockings for their hives.
1) Monthly Beekeeping Magazines
The two most popular beekeeping magazines in the US are Bee Culture and American Bee Journal . Both are excellent magazines and have something to offer for the most basic beekeeper and advanced beekeeper.
And it's a gift that keeps on giving because it's a year-long subscription. Even if your favorite beekeeper gets one of these, they would appreciate getting a subscription to the other one as well.
Bee culture is targeted more toward practical beekeeping with lots of tips and tricks and the American Bee Journal is a little more technical.
If you are looking for a really unique option, get an international beekeeping magazine for them like Bee Craft from the UK .
2) Small Hive Beetle Traps
Beetle traps are one of those gifts a non-beekeeper wouldn’t know about. But if you bought these for a beekeeper, they would know exactly what they are and be very thankful. Small Hive Beetles are a pest that invades beehives and just generally makes life harder for bees.
There are three different styles of traps, but they can both work well if you want to be an extra awesome friend, one of each type so they have an option. Some of these are disposable, and others are reusable, and none of them will harm their honey bees.
They will be shocked if you buy this for them because only a beekeeper would know to buy these so these are a great gift idea. The options available or the Beetle Jail (Reusable), Beetle Blaster (Disposable), and the Foxhound Beetle Trap (Reusable).
3) A Book On Swarming
If your beekeeper is a reader and really likes to know the why behind how bees work, these are the perfect books for them. We have read them and really enjoyed how well they are written.
These books mostly cover how honey bees swarm from the bee's point of view and why a honey bee decides what it does. If you want a book that is the authority on how a beekeeper can catch their own swarm, this book called "Swarm Essentials" is the best.
These are the most popular books written by this amazing author, Thomas Seeley. This author is known for writing incredible books on swarming that are easy to understand (and practical too).
The one we would probably recommend first is Honey Bee Democracy because it is written for the bee lover or beginner beekeeper who may not know a lot about how bees work but is fascinated by them.
If your beekeeping friend has "been stung" by the bees and just can't get enough beekeeping in their life, this is a great book for them. You can also get the audiobook as well on Audible.
4) Universal Sliding Entrance Reducer - 4 Pack
So this is a product called an Entrance Reducer that was designed specifically by Foxhound Bee Company to meet the needs of beekeepers in the winter.
It makes a great holiday season gift for beekeepers because it is used mostly in the winter. It goes by a lot of names, but it is designed to keep mice out of a hive which are a popular pest during the fall and winter.
Another nice thing about these are they are universal so they fit most beekeepers' hives. So if you want to get something specific for their beehive, this is a good one. It's in a thin box, so it makes a great stocking stuffer or a small gift that packs well for traveling.
Having one of these in each hive in your bee yard will make keeping bees easier for your beekeeper. We actually leave them in the hive year-round and recommend them to beginning beekeepers .
5) The Makers Book
These books great ones for the beekeeper who wants to start making some fun stuff with their beeswax and honey but doesn’t know where to start.
It has great recipes for making candles, simple lip balm, leather waterproofer, and more. We have referenced this book many times when making our beeswax candles.
Beeswax Alchemy is the original option and Beehive Alchemy followed up. Both are written in the same style and have great images and very well-written recipes and step-by-step.
If looking for a present for a beekeeper with a couple of years under their belt, this is a nice choice as it addresses what they can do with their extra beeswax. Over time, wax accumulates from keeping bees, so it helps to have a guide for what to do with it.
What is nice about this one is there may be a kickback for you later once your bee lover starts making products with their beeswax .
6) Extra Hive Tools
This is another unique one that only a beekeeper would appreciate and is required for beekeeping. Regardless if you have one hive or 1000, every beekeeper uses a hive tool. Hive tools are used more at the hive than a smoker and are essential to have on hand.
This is why they would be such a great gift, a beekeeper can always use an extra hive tool, and there are many options for hive tools available. We put the 3 most popular ones available that are available on Amazon, and they all come in 2 packs, which is perfect because it's better to have 2 available than one.
There are three versions that most beekeepers use, the J Hook , the Standard Hive Tool , and the KW Hive tool . Our personal favorite is the KW Hive Tool.
7) Varroa Mite Tester
So there is a little bug that lives on a bee called a Varroa Mite. It’s kinda a big deal and can really devastate the health of a colony. There are a lot of ways to deal with Varroa Mites, but they are a real problem for beekeepers. The first step is testing your bees to see if you have a problem.
This tool helps beekeepers count how many mites are actually in their hive so they can help keep their hives healthier and make a more informed decision about how to deal with them.
This is one of the tools beekeepers always look at and think, “That’s pretty cool, I should get one” and then never do. You should change that.
This varroa mite tool works with alcohol and it works even better with 99% alcohol vs the normal 70% rubbing alcohol
8) The Next Beekeeper Book
So when I was studying to become a master beekeeper, The Beekeeper's Handbook was the book that I leaned on hard. It has very accurate information on a broad range of topics.
Fortunately, I passed the master beekeepers test and always recommend this book to anyone interested in learning more about their bees. It's a really great book with excellent information, with great pictures, and drawings.
It's also a great price as well because there are other books that have a lot of the same information that cost more. The best beekeeping book for the person who wants all the information in one place is Honey Bee Biology. They came out with a new version in 2023, and it's an update to their previous version.
I've spoken to the authors about the changes in this edition, and it really addresses a lot of the modern beekeeping changes that have happened in the past few years.
You won't go wrong with buying either of these books, but The Beekeeper's Handbook is easier to swallow, and Honey Bee Biology is actually a textbook so it's a little more advanced.
9) Feeders for Beekeeping
Feeding bees is something that nearly all beekeepers have to do from time to time. And what is more helpful to a beekeeper than having an extra feeder on hand? Nearly all beekeepers will need to feed their bees sugar syrup from time to time, especially when getting started.
These particular feeders have half-gallon jars with them, which is unique in the beekeeping world. Most feeders use containers half that size, which means more work for the beekeeper. These are the feeders we use in our bee yard, and we can't recommend them enough. They come with two jars and entrance feeders that hold the jars so the bees can feed on them.
10) Spacers For Honey Boxes
These frame spacers are very unique to beekeeping and can be very helpful to the beekeeper.
They are unknown to the average beekeeper but can make a big impact on how much honey the bees can store in a box. There is a little assembly required, but you only need a hammer to do it.
The spacers evenly gap the frames in honey boxes and allow the bees to build extra comb and store extra honey to harvest.
The extra thick comb makes it even easier to harvest. A beekeeper can actually harvest more honey from 9 frames in a 10 frame box than 10 frames in a 10-frame hive. Trust us, it works!
11) Smokers for Beekeeping
If you are shopping for a gift for a soon-to-be beekeeper, they will definitely need a bee smoker . In fact, it's on our list of 5 things every beekeeper needs . We have sold these smokers for years and they are one of our most popular beekeeping gifts. Trust us, there are a lot of very very cheap bee smokers out there and the chances are your beekeeping friend has one of them.
We worked hard on these smokers, and they have a lot of nice features built into them. They are beginner beekeeper friendly in the standard size. If you are looking for a gift idea for somebody who isn't a beginning beekeeper anymore, the pro version is a good option.
These are affordable bee smokers that are well-designed and would be an upgrade for any beekeeper so we highly recommend them.
12) Nice Beekeeping Gloves
You don't often see a beekeeper who doesn't have beekeeping gloves on, because, you know... bees have stingers.
Bee Jackets and Beekeeping Suits are more expensive than gloves, so if you are looking for a budget buy that a beekeeper can appreciate a new pair of bee gloves.
These are the same gloves that we wear and they come in a heavy duty beekeeping glove and a ventilated bee glove. Each one is available in white or in olive green. Both work great and fit nicely while also protecting the beekeeper from stings.
Many beekeepers are frustrated with low-quality gloves, but these ones are exceptional. They have thick enough leather and material to stop stings, but still provide comfort and dexterity in the fingers.
13) Winter Food For Honey Bees
During the winter , bees still need to eat but they typically are not able to fly away from the hive because it is too cold. And even if they did, there probably wouldn't be nectar or pollen for the bees.
Ideally, the bees are eating the honey they stored in the spring and summer. But sometimes you need to feed the bees during the winter and sugar patties are the key.
A sugar patty for your beekeeper is a great, winter gift. It's unique and shows that you care for the beekeeper and their honey bees.
What is nice about them is one of these sugar patties or candy boards goes a long way in helping a colony survive the winter.
They aren't just sugar, they actually have some basic essential oils in them to help the bees stay healthy. So if you are looking for a unique gift idea, this is it.
14) Bee Swarm Lure
A long-standing gift that we have recommended for the holidays, which is also a great stocking stuffer, is a swarm lure.
These little bottles can have a big payoff for the beekeeper and really go a long way in helping catch wild bees from the environment.
They typically come in a little spray bottle, and Swarm Commander is one that we have sold for many years and is a beekeeper favorite.
If catching swarms is one of your bee lovers' beekeeping tasks in the spring, they will be very happy to have a bottle of Swarm Commander or another lure in their stocking.
15) Honey Refractometer
A honey refractometer is something beekeepers use to see if their honey is safe to bottle or safe to harvest from the hive.
It's a tool that is used to measure how much water is still in the honey. When removed from the flower, nectar is mostly water, and the bees have to remove that water to get it thick.
A honey refractometer is not exactly a tool for a first-year beekeeper, but it is helpful for any beekeeper who is harvesting honey.
If they are a beginning beekeeper, they may not be harvesting honey just yet. But if they are planning on it, this is a great gift.
Adam Hickman
Adam Hickman owns Foxhound Bee Company and is a certified EAS Master Beekeeper. Before ever selling a box through Foxhound Bee Company, Adam wrote beekeeping blogs for education. Adam regularly teaches beekeeping classes through Foxhound Bee Co and also through his local beekeeping club.
