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Tools
You'll probably want to have these three tools for working with your bees:
- Hive tool
- Smoker
- Bee brush
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Hive Tool
The hive tool is used for lots of prying, scraping, and leveraging tasks around and in a bee hive.
Scraping End
The scraping end of the hive tool is sharpened like a chisel to fit between frames in the hive and dislodge any that are stuck together with wax and propolis. It can be used to scrape off burr comb from the top and bottom of the frame, and to destroy swarm cells if needed.
Prying End
The prying end of the tool is good for lifting off covers and prying frames up high enough to get a hold of them with your fingers.
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The prying end of the hive tool, in red, is used for lifting covers and prying frames.
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Smoker
The smoker is a very important beekeeping tool. It is used to subdue the bees when opening a hive.
When bees sense smoke, they attempt to engorge themselves on honey to prepare for an emergency flight, and the scent of smoke masks the bees' alarm pheromones. Judicious but careful use of a smoker is recommended.
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Fire Pot
The fire pot is where the fuel goes in the smoker. A wire screen or grate near the bottom of the pot separates the fuel from the bottom surface of the smoker with a layer of air.
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Bellows
The bellows are used to feed air to a fire. It's an old design that you don't see in many other places anymore, but it's still a great, durable, effective way of keeping the smoke coming without using batteries or fans.
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Bee Brush
The bee brush can be used to gently brush bees off of frames when preparing to harvest honey or for any other reason a beekeeper might want to remove bees from a frame.
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The bee brush is an optional tool. A leafy tree branch or a firm shake of the frame can achieve the same result.
In our experience, bee brushes seem to make bees angry, but feel free to experiment with one yourself.
PennStateExtension+OLC-1006+2017+type@asset+block/S2Removing_frames__shaking_brush_and_leaves_-_weeds_brush.jpg" alt="Using a tree branch to sweep bees off of a frame." style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; vertical-align: middle; max-width: 100%; line-height: 1.4em; height: auto;">
A beekeeper uses a leafy tree branch to brush bees off of a frame. This is an alternative to using a bee brush.
