← 💷 Economics

🍯 Budget Shelf

Secondhand equipment
Buy own honey extractor
Hives & bees:
Protective gear:
Tools & consumables:
Extraction:
First-year total:
Jar fill:
Drag — rotate · Scroll — zoom

🍯 What Beekeeping Really Costs to Start

Build a shelf of real starter equipment — hives, bees, protective gear, tools and an extractor — and watch a honey jar gauge fill with your realistic first-year UK cost.

🔬 What It Demonstrates

Startup cost is driven by a handful of choices: hive count, how you acquire your bees, gear tier, condition (new vs secondhand), and whether you buy or borrow an extractor. Each choice adds or removes a 3D prop and moves the honey level.

🎮 How to Use

Set the number of hives, choose a bee source and gear tier, then toggle secondhand equipment and extractor ownership. The shelf restocks live and the jar fills to your first-year total.

💡 Did You Know?

Borrowing a club extractor instead of buying one can save a single-hive beginner several hundred pounds in year one — often more than switching from a nucleus to a caught swarm.