Beekeeping Equipment - Beehive Tools

In that location is a larger add up of different options of apiculture tools and equipment for the apiculturist to chose from. For the initiate or tiro beekeeper the count of options available potty seem intimidating and the leisurely choice tooshie be just to purchase a double-dyed beginners kit, however, these do not needfully hold the C. H. Best equipment and with a small entropy you should be capable to pick out the correct apiculture puppet and equipment number one meter.

Hive tools fundamentally possess threesome chief purposes and when choosing your beehive dick you should deport these in heed. First off to skid in 'tween the several lifts of your nettle rash and lightly prize them apart, break the propolis with which the bees bequeath rich person glued them jointly. They are besides put-upon to apart frames inside the beehive and rescind them slimly allowing the frames to be abstracted for inspections. In conclusion they canful be victimised to scar propolis, wax or early bee products from your urtication and frames safekeeping them sizeable during inspections, or when cleaning devour at the goal of the harden. In that respect are numerous early uses for hive tools inside the apiary, anything from detrition KO'd king cells to prod a wooden beehive to construe if parts of it are rotten, simply these are passably worldwide and do non truly impact the excogitation or alternative of puppet.

There are basically two choices of hive instrument types usable from well-nigh suppliers, the measure beehive tool and the J-type hive puppet. More or less beekeepers whitethorn hold dissimilar unusual beehive tools they throw made themselves or inherited, and invariably they wish exact that their tools is best than those available, however, to use unitary of these oddities you bequeath more often than not wealthy person to crap it yourself or learn it from a unassuming beekeeper. While the measure tools and J-tools are all similar, at that place are elusive differences from apiece manufacturer which urinate just about more than utilitarian than others. The stock hive peter is a monotonous part of metallic inclined through with ninety degrees at unity terminate to contribute a shortly counterfoil part round 20mm (1") long, both ends are tapered to a thin edge like a paint scraper. A J-tool is a similar flat piece of metal with one end tapered like a paint scraper, the other shaped into a J shape.

The long thin tapered "blusher scraper" ends of both tools are used to gently slide in between the lifts of the hive, until it can be levered off the frames inside to separate the lifts. If the hive is well stuck down it may be necessary to lever from several sides to break the seal all the way around. When separating boxes you must lever off the frames and not the hive bodies as these can be damaged and cost considerably more to replace than the frames. The design of this element of the hive tool is fairly common across all manufacturers and there is little to chose between the two tool options from this point of view.

For separating the frames the bent end of the standard tool is placed between adjacent frames and then twisted to lever one frame against the next moving them apart. Once both ends are free then the frame can be lifted form inspecting. The J-tool should have a wider square section at the paint scraper end (and not a gradual taper as for the standard tool), this is placed between the frames and twisted to lever the frames apart. The design of the J-tool does vary and some designs do not include this square end section, these are not as useful and therefore should not be bought.

Once the frames are separated the J-tool comes into its own, the J section is inserted under the end of the frame to be lifted, and the lug on the back edge rested on the adjacent frame. The J-tool is them levered backwards lifting the frame and making it easy to get hold of. This makes it much easier to remove frames without the possibility of squashing any bees that may be in between the ends of frames. The standard tool has no method of lifting frames, therefore the J-tool is generally considered to be superior for beekeeping. However, it's more complicated shape makes it slightly more expensive and therefore it is rarely included in beginners kits.

For scraping and cleaning wax and propolis from frames and hive sections, or removing wild comb or drone comb harvesting, the scraper end of both tools is used, and they are both very similar in how they perform. For cleaning large flat areas such as hive sides, or scraping across the queen excluder to clean it up, the bent end of the standard tool can be used as it is marginally better and slightly less likely to dig in to the hive side than the scraper end. However, if used carefully the scraper end of the J-tool can be just as effective and this marginal improvement in scraping in no way makes up to the standard tools lack of ability to lift frames. In an ideal world the beekeeper would have both tools and many beekeepers with multiple hives do, however the novice beekeeper should start with the J-tool.

The material which the hive tool is important, it should be made of stainless steel. Painted steel tools are okay to start with but quite quickly the paint will scratch and the tool will start to rust. This will get rust on your white beekeeping suit, in your hives, on your frames and most importantly, it could end up in your honey.

Finally one end of the hive tool should be painted a bright colour red is ideal, this helps locate the tool when it has been dropped in the grass. Painting only one end also means that the shiny stainless steel end may glint in the sun further helping the search for your lost tool. The scraper end of both J-tools and standard tools should be left unpainted, these are the ends, which get the most abuse and are therefore most like to scratch the paint. Some hive tools are sold unpainted, some are completely painted, both of these should be avoided for the above reasons.

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