5 Fun Gift Ideas for Beekeepers

How on earth can a non-beekeeper know what to get a beekeeper for a gift? After all, beekeepers spend a lot of time doing some very odd things.

Like standing in silence, for minutes on end, staring into an open hive as if mesmerized by the bees' gentle hum, the endless circling of the waggle dance, and the scent of honey. Painting teensy-tiny dots of color onto queen bees. Scanning frames of honeycomb for evidence of the evil wax moth. Or talking your ear off about how bees are vital to the world food supply, yada yada yada... Frankly, it takes a beekeeper to know what beekeepers want.

True, we're all individuals under the funny white coveralls and veils, but at least one of these 5 Fun Gift Ideas for Beekeepers should tickle the fancy of any beekeeper in your life. Especially if they like the funny as much as they like their honey!

Gifts For The Honey Mogul Beekeeper

Honey for sale? Help your Beekeeper buddy reap the rewards of his honey harvest, with a colorful banner to advertise the sweet stuff to neighbors and friends. Sure to catch the eye!

If a big Honey banner isn't quite the thing, what about a colorful garden flag to tell the world there's a Beekeeper in the neighborhood?

If your beekeeping buddy is also selling his honey "at the farm gate" to neighbors and friends, a flag's a great way to let the sweet-seekers know when the harvest is in and bottled up for sale.

Gifts For The Fashionable Beekeeper

Anyone who works in the great outdoors will appreciate an addition to his or her wardrobe of casual stretchy cotton shirts, especially if we're talking about a clever t-shirt that speaks to the beekeeper's personal obsession. A little bit of humor from the hive!

Our favorite of all beekeeping-themed t-shirts, so far, is this unique t-shirt with the amusing cartoon character, "The Pollinator," on it. Made from 6.0 oz, pre-shrunk 100% cotton, it was designed by Honeydoodles on Zazzle and is available in a customizable variety of colors and styles for both men and women.

This unique T-shirt shows the beekeeper as a beekeeping superhero, equipped with a hive tool and smoker just like you've seen him a kajillion times out in the bee yard, but "just a little distracted by the bee in his veil." No surprise, it will quickly become one of your favorite beekeeper's favorite clothing items.

Gifts For The Queen Bee Beekeeper

Home business and hobby beekeeping so often go together - why not honor the ruler of your personal colony with an attractive sign for her office door or honey house? Or, alternatively, a sweet little bee-themed trinket for her jewelry box?

No gift could be more appropriate for the queen of your personal colony than a pretty piece of bee-themed jewelry, of course, but some pieces of bling will be more welcome than others, for a female beekeeper who spends much of her time in the apiary, sorting through frames and hefting the hive boxes, or scraping down and repairing equipment in the workshop in the off-season.

Do you want an "insider tip" on choosing the right kind of jewelry to give to a woman who's a beekeeper?

Here's something you may not have thought about:

Many beekeepers don't even wear a wedding ring, for safety reasons, of course - but lots of us female beekeepers also shy away from costume jewelry rings, to avoid bringing too much attention to ragged fingernails and hands that are often stained with propolis - hey, beekeeping is hard work, you know! A nice necklace, however, would be a sweet gift indeed.

Gifts For The Bad Beekeeper

You could always gift a struggling apiarist with a new protective bee suit, a new pair of elbow-length gloves, a box of Benadril to treat the itch of those inevitable stings, but I think we can do better - with a good sense of humor.

Beekeepers who struggle with their own "learning curve" out in the apiary will roar with laughter, shake their heads, warm to a sense of kindship with Bill Turnbull's challenges in apiculture, and come out the other end of this humorous book with a feeling that perhaps they're not the only beekeeper who has done the occasional stupid thing... Surely, he cannot really be such a bad beekeeper as all that?

Bill Turnbull is the long-time cohost of Britain's most popular morning TV show, as well as the author of two very readable and entertaining books of beekeeping memoirs.

Gifts For the Geek Beekeeper

Hey, it's Science!!

Any beekeeper who is a true computer nerd will get the gag behind The Geek's Guide to Beekeeping - and he'll love watching his non-beekeeping Luddite pals look puzzled. Check the video for an overview:

There are five different unique designs in The Geek's Guide to Beekeeping line of products, each with a clever diagram that draws a link between the worlds of the bee hive and of the computer.

The "System Overview" diagram for example, cleverly compares a colony of bees to a computer system. "Hardware Components" shows the parts of a typical Langstroth hive (boxes, supers, bottom board, frames, and the rest of the equipment) in the style of a technical diagram such as you'd find in a user manual for a new piece of electronics. This is the ultimate in "insider jokes" for the hobby beekeeper whose day job is in the high-tech realm.

Our favorite product to showcase the Geek Beekeeping humor is the "Morphing Mug," which starts out as a plain black mug when it's cold. Pour in a hot liquid, and the mug turns white to reveal the picture... and an important insight about beekeeping. Or, you can go with a t-shirt, coffee mug, all the usual accouterments of the gag gift parade, all by Honeydoodles.com