There's a couple of things you need when starting beekeeping. A few are for your protection and a a few are for working with the hives.
Protection:
You need to have no exposed skin when you first start working with your new hive. Bees are understandably not impressed with an intruder messing with their home and will let you know about it! The initial response will be guard bees that will fly towards you and check you out. If they see you as threatening, which they will when you open the hive and start pulling frames out, that's when they will sting you. So, you need a head and body covering. All sorts of clothing setups are available, from a veiled hat to a full body hazmat style suit. I recommend a jacket with built in hood as a good compromise, and when this is paired with long pants and boots/long socks, you will be pretty safe. Since you do most of your hive work during summer, a ventilated suit is a good idea - the type I provide (and use myself) have three layers of breathable mesh that prevents bee stings, but keeps you cool. Gloves are advisable when starting out and these can be as cheap and simple as a pair of rubber dishwashing gloves, but I prefer gloves with thin leather hands and cotton wrists. This gives good dexterity with decent coverage. Don't underestimate a bee's ability to seek out the one piece of exposed skin and sting you there! I've been stung on the one rip in a pair of jeans : )
Beekeeping tools:
You will need a good quality, large smoker, a hive tool and a bee brush initially. There may be other tools you will add to your collection as you get more experienced but these are the essential starters. The smoker is used to puff a small amount of cool smoke into the hive to mask the bees' chemical communications. This reduces the chance of being stung while working the hive. The hive tools come in a variety of shapes and designs, but the basic use is to be able to pry boxes and frames part when they've been stuck together by the bees, and to assist with lifting frames out of the hive boxes. The bee brush should be natural hair (mine are horse hair) as the bees seem to dislike synthetic fibres. The brush can be used to gently encourage bees to leave a frame during hive inspections.
Check out my starter equipment kit on the store page. This contains all the equipment you will need when starting out and includes a bonus book - 'Backyard Bees' by Aussie beekeeper Doug Purdie with lots of great local tips, seasonal tasks and recipes for honey and wax. https://beelonging.wixsite.com/website/product-page/starter-equipment-kit
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