Beekeeping is rewarding, and the Goplus Automatic Honey Beehive Box kit provides an affordable, full-featured introduction to the hobby. This kit and other similar products put the beekeeping hobby in close reach for almost anyone. It doesn’t matter if you live in an urban setting, the wide-open country, or a bustling suburban area. Kits such as the Goplus Automatic Honey Beehive Box kit will have you on your way to a sweet hobby.
Many people are surprised to learn that they can get everything they need for the beekeeping holiday from an online retailer, such as Amazon. Most imagine beekeeping as a hobby that requires specialized equipment that is expensive and difficult to use. The new all-in-one kits are not only easy to buy, but they are also simple and intuitive to use.
Beekeeping, or apiculture, involves hosting a bee colony in a hospitable location that encourages the full bee lifecycle to flourish. Hive population includes a queen bee, workers, and drones. Together they build honeycombs and create honey. Home beekeepers, or apiarists, collect the honey and beeswax for personal use or sale.
When some think of beekeeping, they might stop and pause at the idea of getting stung. While stings are a potential result of beekeeping, there are numerous methods for reducing the number and severity of stings. These can include protective equipment and purposely getting stung to build up venom tolerance. Ouch. Proper equipment, such as the Goplus Automatic Honey Beehive Box kit, is one of the best ways to make the hobby a lot less painful and to enjoy its many benefits.
In the past, beekeeping required extensive equipment that was hard to obtain, and often expensive. Beekeeping enthusiasts usually stayed close to rural areas. This is why honey is a popular farmer’s market product and a reward for a weekend ride into the country. Today, people are embracing beekeeping in city rooftops and small backyards that once were considered impractical for the hobby.
The Goplus Automatic Honey Beehive Box kit helps bring the hobby right to your backyard or rooftop. Like most beekeeping kits, it includes everything the hobbyist needs to experience the many benefits of beekeeping. With the kit, you can soon be enjoying honey and beeswax. More importantly, you can embark on a hobby that provides a closer connection with our natural world.
Image Source: Pixabay.com
Beekeeping benefits include, of course, the production of honey. Many begin the hobby because of their love of honey and interest in harvesting the sweet golden product. Most supermarket honey brands filter and pasteurize their products. Some are even cut with corn syrup to increase uniformity and lower their prices. The Goplus Automatic Honey Beehive Box kit gives you all the tools necessary to have deliciously sweet honey in your life.
When you derive honey from your personal beehive, the result is rich, nuanced, and unique. Honey takes on the characteristics of the flowers and plants that the bees frequent. This is called terroir, which is just like how wines from different regions have unique flavors. If you live near a field of wildflowers — and by near we mean within the typical five-mile flight radius of a bee — then your honey will take on the flowers’ essence.
Some may wonder about taking the honey from the hive. Doesn’t the hive need the honey for food? The answer is yes and no. First, if started early enough in the spring, a colony will create excess honey. Jumping into the hobby later in the summer may not provide you with the honey you want, but your hive will be vibrant and active in the following spring. Like many rewarding hobbies, beekeeping requires some patience.
While honey is sweet and delicious, it is not the only useful product to come from a Goplus Automatic Honey Beehive Box kit. Natural beeswax is a fantastic product. With it, you can embark on other hobbies, such as candle or soapmaking. Beeswax is also a key ingredient in many natural cosmetic products, such as lotions and creams.
Beeswax can also be used to protect certain items, such as linen, and can make an excellent substitution for plastic food wraps.
Image Source: Pixabay.com
More than the end products of beekeeping, a kit like the Goplus Automatic Honey Beehive Box kit also provides a rewarding hobby that makes you a part of a biological process. Some pastimes can show you the enormity of life on a daily basis. Hobbies that allow participation in something bigger than oneself, such as beekeeping and other activities in nature, can help relieve stress. In fact, according to the American Institute of Stress, focused activities may even be more effective than medication and other traditional treatments. For many, this perspective can help center oneself and help achieve self-improvement.
These benefits are easy to experience through easy to use beginner’s kits, such as the Goplus Automatic Honey Beehive Box kit. Let’s take a closer look at this kit, and how quickly anyone can become a beekeeper.
Like all beehive kits, the Goplus Automatic Honey Beehive Box kit features a frame system, where beekeepers insert individual combs into the box. These comb panels are removable and form the basis for hive structure. Your introduced colony will build honeycomb on these frames. The Goplus Automatic Honey Beehive Box kit includes seven combs, and seven honey flow tubes. Together, this systems encourages honeycomb growth and allows for easy collection of honey through the flow tubes.
Although it is an all-in-one kit, the Goplus Automatic Honey Beehive Box kit ships in two separate packages, and requires assembly. Beekeeping is a rewarding hobby, but it also requires patience, especially from the onset.
The price for the Goplus Automatic Honey Beehive Box kit ranges from $200 to $250.
No products found.
No products found.
The Goplus Automatic Honey Beehive Box kit is a great entry-level introduction to beekeeping. Its simplified honeycomb frame system allows for easy monitoring, and its cedarwood construction helps avoid some of the problems associated with plastic or untreated wood products, such as the accumulation of mold-encouraging moisture.
While the Goplus Automatic Honey Beehive Box kit is a good beginner kit that can help open your eyes to the wonderful world of beekeeping, it is not a completely perfect product. If you are looking for an off-the-shelf solution, be aware that the Goplus Automatic Honey Beehive Box kit requires some setup. This can be a good thing, though, since it encourages would-be hobbyists to take the time to learn the intricacies of how backyard beehives work. Some reviewers, however, noted that the wood frames do not fit well together, and require some rough sanding and even shaving or drilling of the wood to make it work.
Overall, here are the pros and cons of the Goplus Automatic Honey Beehive Box kit:
- Designed to look good in your backyard
- Made of beeswax-treated cedarwood for water-resistance and durability
- May be difficult to assemble for some
- Some noted it needed considerable finish work before usable
- The package may come in two shipments, which can be confusing to new beekeepers
We didn’t want to limit our discussion of the Goplus Automatic Honey Beehive Box kit to its features and pros and cons. Since there are many available options for the home beekeeping enthusiast, we decided to look at some of the top-rated honey beehive kits. This way you can compare price, features and the respective pros and cons of the competition before deciding on the best beehive kit for your needs.
There are several honey beehive kits available online. We chose the ones with the best ratings, which were also the most appropriate for a beginning hobbyist. To determine the top-rated kits, we looked at the most beneficial information — comments from actual purchasers and users. Here is the competition and how each stacks up against the Goplus Automatic Honey Beehive Box kit.
Online user reviews rave about this full-featured kit. With a stellar five-star rating, many consider it the best kit for enthusiasts and beginners alike. Unlike the Goplus Automatic Honey Beehive Box kit, Apimaye builds its kits out of food-grade plastic and designs the hive to create sufficient airflow to avoid moisture buildup.
It comes pre-assembled. It doesn’t need painting or treatment. Apimaye also insulates this hive kit so you can rest assured that your colony will withstand extreme cold. This insulation also decreases honey consumption by the hive, which results in more yield for the hobbyist.
This kit also comes with many standard built-in features, such as a pollen trap and drawer, an entrance reducer, queen excluder, and a top feeder. These standard features and the excellent build quality come at a premium price, though. The price range for the Apimaye hive is from $300 to $400.
Overall, Amazon reviewers give this product 5 out of 5 stars.
The Complete Bee Hive Kit from Mann Lake is a more affordable, simple home beekeeping option. It features pine construction, with 10 frames and a waxed foundation, so your colony can have a head start in drawing honeycomb.
There aren’t many bells and whistles in this kit, and you will need to purchase some additional equipment, such as a feeder. Also, as your hive grows, you may need to buy an extra body to handle expansion. For a basic entry-level kit, it is well-constructed and well-reviewed online. Commenters love how this product makes entry into the hobby easy, and how the build is sturdy and lightweight at the same time.
Some negative reviews complained about the need for additional equipment. Others noted build quality inconsistencies.
The price range for the Mann Lake Complete Bee Hive Kit is from $95 to $125, which is half the price of the Goplus Automatic Honey Beehive Box kit.
This hive gets 4.6 out of 5 stars on Amazon.
Another excellent product for the beginner, the Summer Hawk Ranch Honey Jar Hive has one feature that sets it apart from the Goplus Automatic Honey Beehive Box kit — direct-to-jar honey collection. Summer Hawk uses Canadian hemlock wood to build its kits and uses finger-joint construction for durability.
The kit comes with a pre-waxed plastic honeycomb foundation, stainless steel queen excluder, a ventilated inner cover, and two ventilated jar screens. This gives hobbyists almost everything needed for a thriving hive.
Customer reviews are somewhat mixed for this product. While some enjoyed the product as a great starter hive, others had problems with assembly and packaging. A few other reviewers had issues with poor construction.
Of the kits reviewed, the SummerHawk is closest in price range to the Goplus Automatic Honey Beehive Box kit. Price ranges from $185 to $250.
Overall, this one gets 4 out of 5 stars.
Image Source: Pexels.com
Beekeeping is a rewarding hobby. It also can be difficult for many to learn the necessary skills to ensure a healthy hive. A simple, all-inclusive product helps the beekeeping newbie achieve great results. Since beekeeping requires a bit of a learning curve, we think the best introductory beehive kit is one that for the most part works on autopilot.
Although the Goplus Automatic Honey Beehive Box kit contains most everything you’ll need to start your hive, too many commenters took issue with difficulties in assembly. It gets just 2.8 out of 5 stars on Amazon. For this reason, while we think the Goplus kit can be a good option for beekeeping, spending a bit more money for the Apimaye 10-Frame might make more sense. If budget is an issue, go with Goplus. If you like the convenience of jars that will collect the honey for you, check out the SummerHawk. Lastly, if you want a simple solution that you can build upon, the Mann Lake Complete is a great product.
Either way, today, beekeeping is within reach of almost anyone, no matter where they live. Just make sure to be careful when handling those honeybees.
Featured Image Source: Pixabay.com