Beekeeping supplies in Denver

A friend told me she saw a sign downtown for beekeeping supplies. Hrmmm ... better check it out! Google was not very helpful, but eventually I was able to sleuth out this brand-new business, To Bee Or Not To Bee.

Vicki converted a quonset in her family's equipment rental yard into a charming shop and opened on St. Patrick's Day.
For years the quonset was used for painting construction gear. Now it's an airy and attractively laid-out space. I love the robin's egg blue throughout.
Vicki sells some assembled hives, both the traditional Langstroth and the top-bar (which she gets from backyardhive.com):
But most of the operation is geared toward the traditional. Lots of woodenware for assembling what you need.
Along the back wall, there are some handy things.

	Such as comb cutters, smokers and a nucleus box that doubles as a toolbox.

There's even a beevac! (I've only seen homemade ones; they're used for extracting bees from inside walls and such. Supposedly doesn't hurt them, but I wouldn't use it if I didn't absolutely have to.)

Up at the front of the shop, there's a rack of bee-friendly seeds (click on the photo if you want to see the varieties) and a few bee-related gifty things.
Of course, I had to try on a bee jacket and model it with the mannequin.
Unfortunately, Vicki was out of stand-alone veils (more coming next week), and she doesn't carry swarm traps, so I left empty-handed. But I'm sure I will be back for something else I can't make for myself.

To Bee Or Not To Bee
725 W. 39th Ave. (click for a map)
303-728-4422

P.S. Vicki was delighted to get some visits based on this post and asked me to put together a simple website for her that Google can point to. Here it is.